John Pollard, Leader of Cornwall Council, writes on devolution
“Dear One and All
I am very pleased to present our ‘Case for Cornwall’.
Following the Scottish Referendum last September the devolution of powers and responsibilities within England [sic] became a burning topic. Cornwall’s response has been to outline the reasons why we feel we can undertake some more responsibilities and early drafts of possible ‘asks’ which we believe are important.
In January I presented the Case for Cornwall to Full Council and gained support for our aims and a mandate to continue working on strengthening our demands. We resolved to prepare and publish a summary of our intentions ahead of the General Election campaign commencing – this is the document I have sent to you today.
We have started the discussions and negotiations with Government departments so we can refine and further debate the Case for Cornwall before presenting a detailed submission before the summer recess of Parliament in July.
The powers, freedoms and flexibility we are requesting are all realistic and will enable us to deliver better services to the people of Cornwall. Some are more developed than others and they are divided into those we believe we can carry out now and those that may be possible at a later date.
Our ambition is to achieve ‘double devolution’ so that the Council’s partners, including our town and parish colleagues and our partners in the voluntary sector benefit from the transfer of powers from London to Cornwall. As our negotiations on devolved powers develop so will the debate on wider issues of governance and management.
These are intended as actions that the unitary Council, working with our partners, can undertake. I know there are those with ambitions for different forms of governance and clearly our ‘case’ will lay the foundations for later developments but we do not intend to enter into a political debate on governance at this time; that is for later. However, we will only be successful if we harness Cornwall’s ambitions for matters to be managed locally and differently.
We are seeking your support. Of course there will be much discussion and debate before any final demands are made but the purpose of this document is to explain what we want to achieve.
We have developed a web page where further information is available and where you can show your support.
The link to the web page is:
www.cornwall.gov.uk/standup
I believe that we can gain a consensus which will propel the case we are making to a very successful conclusion.
John Pollard, Leader of the Council”
Cornwall Council (Unitary Authority) March, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Uzi0Vndbo
Editor: Is this a case for Cornwall, or a case for the Councillors and officers of the Unitary Authority?
Not everyone supports the approach taken.
Mebyon Kernow’s views (not in support of Cornwall’s Council’s ‘call’):
https://www.mebyonkernow.org/news/tag.php?tag=cornish%20assembly
And others: http://www.cornishassembly.org/index.htm
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