Newspaper Column – The Voice – 10/08/26

• I really appreciate the new Fisheries Minister’s visit to Newlyn this week. I know others will be cynical about our having to show around “the umpteenth Minster in as many years”. However, I found Minister Stephen Morgan didn’t arrive with the kind of lazy preconceptions so often displayed in politics. I found him sincerely interested; keen to follow science and evidence. Exactly what we need, to ensure a sustainable fishing industry; balancing marine conservation with the harvesting of an important, and sustainable source of healthy protein.  

There’s much on the Minister’s agenda. Cornwall and Scilly’s fishing industries are well led. The Cornish Fish Producers Organisation (CFPO) is setting the pace for advances in science-based policymaking. But it still needs investment, better protection for low impact fishing methods, especially within the 6-12 mile zone, and improvements in closer working relationships between scientists and the industry.  

It’s always telling that those who were so keen to use the fishing industry as the poster boys for their divisive campaigns, like Brexit, are never to be seen when the hard work needs to be done, including sorting out the mess they made of the fishing industry and the impediments they created to its vital export markets.  

 

• Residents of St Agnes and St Martins risk becoming cut off this winter. Their lifeline ferry services appears to be lost following market failure. Theirs is no transport authority on the islands. All services depend on the market.  

I’ve already appealed to Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander MP; asking her to step in to keep services running this winter while we seek a longer-term sustainable solution. From a few weeks time there’ll be no service, affecting children getting to secondary school, those needing transport to health appointments, to get to basic services and conduct normal life. I’m of course coordinating with the Council, and have spoken to the operating company, St Agnes Boating, run by Island Councillor, John Peacock. 

I’ll report back on this… 

 

• The announced hosepipe ban was not unexpected. South West Water (SWW) presented MPs with a plausible-sounding set of justifications. After all, we know there’s been an unprecedented period of dry weather, even after Biblical rainfall earlier this year.  

However, any reservoir of confidence we may have had in SWW has more than seeped away when we’ve seen such evidence that the company has generally preferred investing in personal dividends and eye-watering salaries and bonuses for the top brass, than investing in improving their services, infrastructure, halting the millions of gallons leaking from their systems and building resilience in response to predictions of the higher likelihood of these drought conditions. 

No doubt communities will soldier on, but the scepticism and criticism of the company will increase.