Conservative MPs should apologise to Cornish Council Tax payers

Cornwall’s Conservative MPs should apologise to Council Tax Payers for consistently voting to cut Council funding.

That’s what Liberal Democrat Councillor Colin Martin and former MP Andrew George are pressing for before Council Tax bills hit local people’s mats next month.

Andrew said, “Cornwall’s Conservative MPs voted to cut Cornwall’s funding again last week. Cornwall Council’s core Government support grant has been slashed by 88% since 2015. This forces the Council to make extremely painful decisions – unavoidably increasing Council Tax and cutting services. Yet it’s the hidden hands of local MPs which actually lie behind this.”

After his election in 2017, Colin challenged South East Cornwall’s Conservative MP to join forces with her colleagues to fight for the Duchy. “I pointed out that as part of a minority Government, six Cornish MPs standing together had the power to stop any budget that didn’t deliver fairer funding for Cornwall. Sadly, she put her party first, saying that doing otherwise would be ‘blackmail’.”

To deliberately create confusion Conservatives have invented the phrase “increased spending power”, says Colin Martin. “Instead of admitting that the Government has cut Cornwall’s funding, they claim Cornwall Council will have an extra £16m “spending power” this year. What this actually means is that Cornwall Council’s grant will be cut by another £4 million but that it can hike Council Tax by a further £20 million!”

A petition calling on Cornwall’s MPs to apologise for voting to cut Cornwall Council’s funding can be found at www.colinmartin.org/cuts