Newspaper Column – The Voice – 05/05/25

Liberal Democrats succeeded in last week’s Council elections. Across the St Ives constituency we gained 5 seats, including the 2 we took in 2021. So: 7 Liberal Democrats, 4 Independents, 1 Mebyon Kernow. No Conservatives (-5) or Labour, or any far-right parties. 

Cornwall Council faces many challenges. Before taking the helm, any new administration should first demonstrate how, within available budgets, it will:

1. Significantly increase delivery of genuinely affordable and social homes for locals. 
2. Promote improved housing justice – putting first homes for locals before any growth in second and holiday homes. 
3. Protect and enhance health and social care services, supporting an NHS free at the point of delivery. 
4. Address recruitment challenges in health and social care, including if necessary recruitment from outside Cornwall and outside the UK. 
5. Ensure our communities have a say in planning & development matters, and are not steamrollered by inappropriate development which fails to address local needs. 
6. Strenthens the delivery of Cornwall’s net zero targets. 
7. Improves the Council’s efforts to restore biodiversity and nature recovery programmes. 
8. Better address the Special Educational Needs of schools and students and ensure a more efficient delivery of ECHPs. 
9. Protect and enhance all Council services; from fire service to waste collection. 
10. Promote renewables, recycling and energy conservation etc. 
11. Protect and promote diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination. 
12. Maintain a leading role on behalf of the Cornish community in respect of support for relevant national and international causes – eg. including to welcome migrants and asylum seekers from conflict zones like Ukraine, and prevent Council inadvertent support for illegal “settlements” in the Palestinian occupied territories, etc. 
13. Uphold high ethical and animal welfare standards, including to ban trail hunting on Council land. 
14. Enhance promotion of the Cornish language and Cornwall‘s status as a national minority. 
15. Promote all things Cornish, including to ensure the prominent display of the St Piran’s flag on all Council buildings. 
16. Protect the public health budget, with especial emphasis on women’s health, sexual health and relationship education, healthy eating and combating obesity.  
17. Build on the strong foundation of Cornish culture to ensure Cornwall cuts itself into the celebration of diversity, not just throughout the UK and Europe, but into a wider world.