By Julia Penhaligon
The ground is being prepared for an unusual full council vote in September about the £58 million so-called “Mid Cornwall Metro” railway project, designed to improve the link between Newquay and Falmouth, but only if it goes via Par.
Cornwall Council’s ruling Conservative group is expected to whip all of its members in a bid to win the vote. Defeat would see the Metro project scrapped. The government cash would not then be available for other projects.
The Tory plan is to challenge other parties to vote down the Metro and then accuse them of being “anti-public transport” and “anti-Cornwall” at next year’s general election. But critics see the project as a classic example of “pork-barrel” politics which has little intrinsic merit.
It is highly unusual for the full council to be allowed to vote on capital projects. The approach reflects the high degree of nervousness among senior officials. Much of the £58 million is expected to be gobbled up in consultants’ fees.
Widely seen as a ludicrous waste of money – dubbed by some as Cornwall’s answer to HS2 – the Metro is enthusiastically supported by St Austell and Newquay MP Steve Double, whose constituency stands to benefit most. The Cornwall Council Conservative leadership is also backing the scheme.
Truro and Falmouth MP Cherilyn Mackrory had to surrender her hopes of a new sports stadium in Truro in order for the rail project to win government backing. The scheme is expected to bring some marginal improvements to train services between Truro and Falmouth.
But the risk for Cornwall’s Conservatives is that so many of their own backbenchers are angry and upset that the spending of Levelling Up funds and Shared Prosperity Funds appears to have been concentrated in the Newquay and Truro areas, with little for the rural parts of North Cornwall and South East Cornwall.
Most councillors have never had any opportunity to scrutinise or debate the proposal, which even if it is built on time and within budget will still struggle to improve on the bus journey time between Newquay and Falmouth.
But an essential pre-requisite for County Hall getting its hands on the Levelling Up funds is to demonstrate “public consultation” – and this now looks set to be defined as a full council vote on 19th September.
Even senior council officials, still smarting from the criticism they faced over the Saints Trail cycle path fiasco, have their doubts that the Metro will be a success. An official report described the project as “very high risk.” The uncertain economic climate, with high inflation and interest rates, and labour shortages, means there is every chance the scheme could run out of money before completion.
County Hall’s fourth floor could be forgiven for breathing a collective sigh of relief if, on 19th September, their ruling political group is defeated.
In Falmouth, there is a distinct feeling that the Metro is being foisted upon the community. In January, the then mayor, Independent councillor Steve Eva, described it as a “waste of money.” Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Truro and Falmouth, Cornwall councillor Jayne Kirkham, criticised the lack of public consultation.
“This is, in my opinion, not a good use of money,” said councillor Eva in January. “We have a pier falling down, no swimming pool or leisure centre, no skate park and what do we get? Trains to Newquay. Ridiculous.
"Levelling Up should be for local projects for the community, this seems to me to be being used to enhance a service that should be funded by transport, but I question that the rail link does not benefit many local residents."
Councillor Kirkham said in January: "I am always delighted to welcome funding to Cornwall but this should be a matter of local choice. People in Truro and Falmouth are struggling to afford rent or purchase their first home. They are worried about ambulance and hospital waiting times and their rising bills every month.
"The money our local communities have been awarded pales into insignificance set against the promises Boris Johnson made to match our lost EU funding pound for pound, or the millions lost to local Cornish services during the last 13 years of Conservative government."
Also in January, Perran Moon, Labour candidate for Camborne and Redruth, added: "We cannot continue with this Hunger Games style contest, where local areas are pitted against each other for short-term pots of funding that are only for things that a Conservative government minister in Westminster thinks are important.
Good grief, do those fools in the Kremlin never learn anything as they stagger along from one balls up to the next?
Allegedly a high proportion of the available funding will once more be soaked up the dreaded consultants which in isolation does not bode well.
It is already patently clear that the so called public consultation is going to be farcical so everything will be hanging on the significant number of disgruntled back bench councillors who see through this scam to bring it down in the same manner as they did with the mayor vote recently.
OK, this is an old battle. I have no idea as to whether the Council is capable of managing this project which, since it is about improving existing infrastructure should not be massively complicated, Once again, this is not just about bus times between Falmouth and Newquay. It would also involve bustimes between Falmouth, St Austell and Par. It is about improving the links between four major Cornish population centres – Falmouth, Truro, St Austell and Newquay. The road link between Falmouth and Truro is very vulnerable to disruption; IIn the summer months, I suspect the same is true for roads into Newquay. In summary, this is not just about the Falmouth-Newquay connection. It is about improving the integration of St Austell into the job markets at both ends of this line.
OK Louis Turner so it is an old battle which is reason enough for it to be dropped.
Given that £19 million has recently been vaporised on a cycle track from Perranporth to Goonhavern it is highly unlikely that £58 million will go very far on this much more comprehensive project which most of us can live without.
It is significant that Mr Mason has delegated two of his minions to take responsibility for this yet another potential financial disaster zone while he retreats into his Kremlin bunker despite being behind the Saints Trail fiasco where he has never been called properly to account.
This man has lengthy previous form dating back to his Restormel Council days where he came close to bankrupting the council over an issue involving the Victoria Industrial Estate where the council got sued and lost the day.
That Cornwall Council is highly unlikely to deliver a Mid Cornwall Metro on time and on budget if lamentable past performance is any guide, is I would respectfully suggest, a very good reason to drop this folly like a hot potato before any funding is committed to it
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It may well be that the Council is totally incompetent. All I know is that £8million was well spent in upgrading the Falmouth-Truro rail link. In theory, this new rail proposal is merely a more ambitious equivalent. I would never have tried to defend spending that kind of money on the cycle path. However, a project which significantly improves public transport links between five major population centres (Newquay, Par, St Austell, Truro and Falmouth) is very different.
I do not dispute that the money spent on the Truro / Falmouth upgrade is bearing fruit but I vehemently question the competence of Cornwall Council to take a projected £58 million spend forward within the parameters set given such lamentable past and current ability to adhere to budgets and timescales.
Our beloved Council really are showing themselves as a JOKE now. The trouble is the joke isn’t funny. By the way there never has been any meaningful public consultation! If there was projects like this, Pydar Street and Langarth would never have been raised!