By Graham Smith

Cornwall Council leader, councillor Leigh Frost, has written to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, asking for “urgent” clarity on whether Cornwall will continue to receive government funding after March 2026.

The penny appears to be dropping that Cornwall Council’s refusal to even talk to neighbouring local authorities about devolution could see County Hall excluded from the government’s new National Wealth Fund.

The government has made progress to regional devolution a precondition for major strategic investment.  Councillor Frost’s letter says nothing about alternatives to a “Cornwall-only” footprint for administering funds.

The ruling Liberal Democrat-Independent administration’s insistence that only Cornish hands should touch the taxpayers’ money has previously been met with ridicule at Westminster and Whitehall.

In his letter, councillor Frost asks: “Are you planning to phase Cornwall out of structural local growth funding?

“If government does intend to remove this support from Cornwall, the consequences would be severe. It would represent a missed opportunity for this government to choose to work together with Cornwall to continue the huge strides made through the local growth funds over the past two decades in transforming our economy.

“Our region still faces some of the lowest wages, highest levels of in-work poverty, and deepest structural economic challenges in the country.

“Progress over the past two decades has been achieved thanks to consistent, predictable, place-based investment. Removing that investment would risk reversing hard-won progress, damaging confidence and deterring private investment.”

Councillor Frost could be hard-pressed to justify his use of phrases like “huge strides” and “hard-won progress.”  Many people see only huge waste.  Indeed, this was the position of the Liberal Democrats when they campaigned against the Conservatives only a few months ago.

There are signs that the new Liberal Democrat-Independent administration might edge away from the previous, Conservative, preference of “hanging baskets” and town centre murals which gambled almost everything on tourism.

But so far the new regime’s talk has concentrated on embryonic technologies such as floating offshore wind and unfathomable long-term global demand for minerals.   The addiction to gambling remains.

Councillor Tim Dwelly, Cornwall Council’s portfolio holder for economic regeneration and investment, said: “We want to know if ministers really are planning to phase Cornwall out of future growth funding.

“That would be an extraordinary decision, ignoring the fact that Cornwall has consistently delivered value for public investment and has huge potential to drive growth, innovations and skills not just locally, but nationally.

“Like Councillor Frost, I am asking government to confirm its intentions – Cornwall deserves a fair chance, not to be quietly pushed aside.”

One of the major difficulties facing Cornwall Council, however, is that its own portfolio of major investments is full of white elephants and flying pigs.

Most of these were launched under the previous Liberal Democrat-Independent administration and remain millstones around the necks of local taxpayers.

The Newquay spaceport is perhaps the highest profile waste of money, but the Penzance Pixel (a rent-a-space artists’ studio, a particular favourite of Penzance councillor Dwelly) cost almost as much and will also never see a return on its extraordinary multi-million pound investment.

The Saints Trail cycle path was such a basket-case that the government actually had to ask for its money back before County Hall officials got any kind of handle on the finances – resulting in a major part of the trail, into Newquay, still waiting for completion.

The council’s habit of wasting millions on business plans for useless projects – such as the Looe flood defence scheme and the Camelford bypass – is hardly likely to inspire ministers to open the public purse.

Few will live long enough to see any signficant benefit from the £60 million Mid Cornwall Metro.  It might have been better to simply give every resident in Cornwall £100 in cash.

Any day now County Hall is expected to underwrite the revenue costs of  the Truro Town Deal bid to build an unnecessarily expensive swing bridge (having already abandoned the idea of a lifting bridge) over the river between Boscawen Park and the Newham industrial estate.  A simple fixed bridge for cyclists and pedestrians would be within the Town Deal budget, but is not grand enough.

More likely is that the government will reply to councillor Frost, pointing to the Great South West partnership as its preferred “accounting body” for strategic regional investment.

"Cornwall has consistently delivered value for public investment" - councillor Tim Dwelly

Ministers might also point to May 2029 as the likely date for the election of a sub-regional mayor – abolishing the Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner at the same time.

It will be interesting to see if the Liberal Democrats, and other opponents of a mayoral system of local government, then refuse to take part in those elections.

grahamsmith@cornwallreports.co.uk