I have always argued that we need
to make progress to improve the historic unfairness in the way various funding
formulae operate in Cornwall. When I was first elected, I led the
campaign to get every Cornish household a £50 rebate on their water bills.
Progress was also made on the NHS formula with greater recognition given to the
age of our population.
I have met
with the Schools Minister on several occasions to ensure that our schools here
in Hayle, Camborne and Redruth are not losing out. As a result, the
government has confirmed that the schools budget for Cornwall will rise by over
3 percent and they have provided enough cash to ensure that we can progress
towards a more consistent national formula while no individual school need lose
out.
Last week, I was pleased to see
an increase in funding for Cornwall Council. Core spending power will rise by
£8.5M, including an adult social care support grant of £1.7M. I am
particularly encouraged that we are seeing this increase in support for adult
social care. Cornwall is also set to receive additional money from the Rural
Services Delivery Grant, which has been increased to the highest level it has
ever been.
There was also very good news for
Hayle, with the announcement of £5.7M for Hayle Harbour North Quay’s
redevelopment. When I became an MP I said I wanted to see Hayle Harbour regenerated.
It had been left derelict for too long and plans had been talked about all my
life time. It was time for action. While a lot of work needed to go into
planning something that local people could get behind, and we needed government
grants to put infrastructure in place, like the new bridge into North quay,
great progress has been made. As well as the new harbour walls, we now
have a marine energy park on North Quay.
The next stage is to complete
sensitive development at the end of South Quay and get things moving on North
Quay. There are now two new developers who have bought the harbour from
the Dutch bank, ING, and I will be working with them to ensure we get the rest
of the development right.
Hayle is going from strength to
strength and there is a new confidence in the town but we have to see through
what has been started.
