Other debates at County Hall

There were two further debates at Cornwall Council today.

The first was a Liberal Democrat motion which sought to monitor the number of staff and salaries, etc, in the three operational areas of the unitary council – known romantically in New County Hall as east, central and west.

The aim was to make information available to encourage a fairer deployment of resources across Cornwall and it was supported by a majority of councillors. It was ironic (understatement of the year) though to see Lib Dem councillors blaming others for the centralisation they caused by pushing through the unitary authority in the first place!

A large number of the concerns came from councillors in the north and east of Cornwall. My contribution was to point out that the impact of the centralising influences stretched further than that. I raised concerns that the Council’s presence in St Austell faced being downgraded due to the influence of Truro and likewise Penzance is losing out to Camborne and elsewhere.

The final motion dealt with by the Council was to acknowledge serious under-funding of the NHS in Cornwall and to challenge the Secretary of State to uplift Cornwall’s health funding by £20.6 million in this financial year in order to combat the underspend.

Unsurprisingly, this was carried unanimously.