By Julia Penhaligon
Supporters of a tourism tax in Cornwall will have a forum to pursue their campaign next year.
A formal Cornwall Council inquiry is due to start in January with recommendations coming to the ruling cabinet in the spring.
The first clues about how officials view the debate are expected on 2nd or 3rd January ahead of a scrutiny committee meeting the following week. The issue is pencilled in for a cabinet meeting on 20th March.
Taking part in what has been dubbed the “Sustainable Tourism Inquiry,” councillors will consider long-standing calls for greater regulation of the Air BNB sector, which some say poses a threat to established holiday homes businesses.
Cornwall has seen big surges in the numbers of visitors as a result of both Brexit and then Covid. Even Visit Cornwall has complained of “over-tourism” in some beauty spots.
According to the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, there are already schemes underway to help offset some of the more damaging impacts of the industry.
But critics say that voluntary initiatives are woefully inadequate to deal with the systemic plundering of local resources to subsidise tourism.
Almost all infrastructure, from small local car parks to large sewage disposal projects, has to be financed by residents. Pressures on police and health services increase dramatically during the summer. Second homes and holiday homes contribute to Cornwall’s dire housing shortage.
Eastern Airways, which enjoys a £439,000 annual public subsidy to fly between Gatwick and Newquay, says most of its passengers are tourists and second home owners.
The problems caused by tourism are so visible and tangible that even council officers could not fail to see! Before you start triple the tax or more as there are some huge infrastructure issues that need resolving.
If I wanted to live in some festering metropolis I would move to somewhere like London, Birmingham, Manchester et al.
Instead bit by bit we are having a festering metropolis imposed on us which brings its own problems with it such as drugs, traffic congestion, added social care pressure and all the other negative aspects of lifestyles which are totally at odds with our own right to peacefully enjoy our own way of life in our own unique place.
Excess tourism is like an albatross around our collective necks the whole concept is being oversold by the likes of Air B&B as most properties get increasingly artificially priced beyond an average locals buyers reach and former rental homes are sucked into the holiday letting system because it pays better.
The curse of Air B&B is merely another element of the malign social engineering process which is eroding our quality of life which no one seems prepared to talk about as long as the potentially huge profits roll for the fortunate few.