Economy of Cornwall
Encyclopedia
The economy of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, is largely dependent upon agriculture followed by tourism. Cornwall is one of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 with a GDP of 62% of the national average, and is one of four UK areas that qualifies for poverty-related grants from the EU (European Social Fund). Farming and food processing now puts £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

1 billion a year into the Cornish economy (2007) and Cornish produce is increasingly recognised for its exceptional quality. The Cornish economy also depends heavily on its successful tourist industry which contributes 24% of Cornwall's GDP and supports about 1 in 5 jobs (19% in Kerrier
Kerrier
Kerrier was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was the most southerly district in the United Kingdom, other than the Isles of Scilly. Its council was based in Camborne ....

, Restormel
Restormel
Restormel was a borough of Cornwall, United Kingdom, one of the six administrative divisions that made up the county. Its council was based in St Austell . Other towns included Newquay....

 and Scilly, 24% in Penwith
Penwith
Penwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...

, 23% in North Cornwall
North Cornwall
North Cornwall was the largest of the six local government districts of Cornwall, United Kingdom. Its council was based in Wadebridge . Other towns in the district included Bude, Bodmin, Launceston, Padstow, and Camelford....

, 22% in Carrick
Carrick, Cornwall
Carrick was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Its council was based in Truro. The main centres of population, industry and commerce were the city of Truro and the towns of Falmouth/Penryn....

 and 14% in Caradon
Caradon
Caradon was a local government district in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It contained five towns: Callington, Liskeard, Looe, Saltash and Torpoint, and over 80 villages and hamlets within 41 civil parishes...

).

Statistics

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
Year Regional Gross Value Added Agriculture Industry Services
1995 3,230 235 813 2,182
2000 4,245 198 1,021 3,027
2003 5,401 221 1,195 3,985


The official measures of deprivation and poverty at district and 'sub-ward' level in Cornwall show that there are large differences in poverty and prosperity in different parts of Cornwall and that though some parts are among the poorest in England, others are among the top half in prosperity. For example, the ranking of 32 482 sub-wards in England in the index of multiple deprivation ranges from 589th (part of Penzance East) to 30 477th (part of Saltash St Stephens), where the lower number represents the most deprivation. See also Poverty and deprivation in Cornwall (June 2006) and Poverty and neighbourhood renewal in west Cornwall (January 2002) and Index of Multiple Deprivation in Cornwall'.

Traditional areas such as fishing and china clay extraction have gradually shed workers in recent years and the once dominant tin mining industry has been in steady decline since the late 19th century. The last working tin mine in Europe, South Crofty
South Crofty
South Crofty is a metalliferous Tin and Copper mine located in the village of Pool, Cornwall, England UK. An ancient mine, it has seen production for over 400 years, and extends almost two and a half miles across and down and has mined over 40 lodes. Evidence of mining activity in South Crofty has...

, near Camborne
Camborne
Camborne is a town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation comprising Camborne, Pool and Redruth....

, finally closed in 1998, but in November 2007 it was announced that the mine may restart production in 2009. Though as of late 2010 this has not yet started.

Objective One funding in Cornwall

Cornwall did not qualify for Objective One European funding until 1999. Prior to this the Government had, for statistical purposes, incorporated it with Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, under the Devonwall
Devonwall
Devonwall was a political concept introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1970s by the Conservative government. It was an attempt to link Cornwall and Devon together in an economic, political and statistical sense to form a South West region...

 concept . Pressure from within Cornwall for Objective One grant aid in the early 1990s for regeneration funding were often dismissed by Government officials as unrealistic and unobtainable but today many of the same officials see it as the miracle cure for Cornwall. In 1998 Cornwall was recognized by the UK Government as having "distinct cultural and historical factors reflecting a Celtic background", thus allowing it to be separated in a regional and economic sense from Devon. This fact underlines the importance of Celticity to Cornwall in recent years.

Due to Cornwall producing less than 75% of the average European GDP, £350 million of Objective One funding was received between 2000 and 2006. Despite claims of lax administration by the Government Office of the South West many beneficial things came of it including the Combined Universities Campus at Tremough
Tremough
Tremough Campus is a university campus situated in Penryn, Cornwall. It is the only such university project in Cornwall currently. The name Tremough derives from the Cornish word for "pig farm"....

. Objective one funding has been used in supporting and developing a largely indigenous food and farming industry which is now worth nearly two billion pounds a year - a lot more than tourismOther sectors have also benefited, icnluding the 'creative industries', which have benefited from publicity and investment. Tourism has also gained form Objective One Funding, and broadband provision was made a priority. There have been some complaints of fund mismanagement, for example, cases such as the £2 million funding towards the failed South West Film Studios
South West Film Studios
The South West Film Studios were built in 2002 at St Agnes in Cornwall and soon become known locally as "Aggiewood". Costing £5.7m to construct in total, the complex was one of the highest-profile Cornish projects backed by European Objective One funding, receiving nearly £2 million while the rest...

 at St Agnes
St Agnes, Cornwall
St Agnes is a civil parish and a large village on the north coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles north of Redruth and ten miles southwest of Newquay....

.

In 2005, Cornwall was estimated to have a GDP of 70% of the European average and although the then chancellor Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

 was reluctant to facilitate it, Cornwall qualified once again for Objective One. The next 'tranche' is known as Convergence funding, this will last between the beginning of 2008 and 2013, and will be worth £445 million. There have been many complaints from Cornish people
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...

that once again this investment will be managed from outside Cornwall, by the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), in Exeter and Bristol, and that Objective One administrative jobs should in fact be based in Cornwall. Cornwall is the only Objective One region in the UK and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 where the project is administered from outside the region. Priorities for the 2008-13 tranche will have a different emphasis, this will be on information and communication technologies, competitiveness, enterprise and a providing a skilled workforce.

There have been claims that Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an money has not created the regeneration that is required but has encouraged an unhealthy reliance upon tourism, grandiose projects and has helped stimulate population growth. This could lead to future problems of sustainability and over-development where soaring house prices are producing an increasingly divided Cornwall

With limited public scrutiny and critical academic research on the Cornish Objective One project it is not known how much grant aid leaks out to organisations outside Cornwall. Also it is not known who fills the jobs created, whether they were resident in Cornwall or drawn in by the funding. No research has taken place into who is benefiting from Objective One funding. It has been claimed one effect has been to encourage a 'lifestye Cornwall' with a transformation of areas such as Padstow
Padstow
Padstow is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately five miles northwest of Wadebridge, ten miles northwest of Bodmin and ten miles northeast of Newquay...

 and St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...

 into gourmet centres with an emphasis on leisure, up-market housing and theme parks. On the other hand there are many non-tourist areas characterised by high unemployment, low incomes and deprivation.

One of the first projects, a £3.5 million factory was built by the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) at St Columb Major
St Columb Major
St Columb Major is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as St Columb, it is situated approximately seven miles southwest of Wadebridge and six miles east of Newquay...

 with £1.7 million of Objective One funding in January 2002. It was occupied by the American-owned book, video and CD distribution company Borders Books, creating 90 jobs, and became the company's national distribution centre. In March 2008 it was announced that the depot was to close.

The Gaia Energy Centre at Delabole
Delabole
Delabole is a large village in north Cornwall, England, UK. It is situated approximately two miles west of Camelford.The village of Delabole came into existence in the 20th century; it is named after the Delabole Quarry. There were three hamlets: Pengelly, Medrose and Rockhead...

, opened in 2001 as a tourist attraction (on the site of Britain's first commercial windfarm). It cost £5m and was expected to attract 150,000 visitors a year. It closed after three years, having only welcomed one tenth of the expected visitor numbers. The majority of the funding for the centre came from Europe, with £300,000 grants from Objective One and SWDRA, the South West Regional Development Agency.

Tourism

Cornwall's unique culture
Culture of Cornwall
The culture of Cornwall forms part of the culture of the United Kingdom, but has some distinct customs, traditions and peculiarities. Cornwall, a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county of England, a duchy, and a Celtic nation, has many strong local traditions...

, spectacular landscape and mild climate make it a popular tourist destination, despite being somewhat distant from the United Kingdom's main tourist centres. Surrounded by the Celtic Sea
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany...

 and English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

, Cornwall has miles of beaches and cliffs. Other tourist attractions include moorland, country gardens and wooded valleys, and tourism is a significant sector of the economy.

Five million tourists visit Cornwall each year, mostly drawn from within the UK. In particular, Newquay
Newquay
Newquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....

 is a popular destination for surfers. In recent years, the Eden Project
Eden Project
The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, including the world's largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world....

 near St Austell
St Austell
St Austell is a civil parish and a major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the south coast approximately ten miles south of Bodmin and 30 miles west of the border with Devon at Saltash...

 has been a major financial success, drawing one in eight of Cornwall's visitors. The Eden Project has attracted some criticism for never being financially self-sufficient and since its creation has received over £130m in grants from the Millennium Commission
Millennium Commission
The Millennium Commission in the United Kingdom was set up to aid communities at the end of the 2nd millennium and the start of the 3rd millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery....

, Objective One European funding, SWRDA (South West Regional Development Agency) and Cornwall County Council
Cornwall County Council
Cornwall Council is the unitary authority for Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition of large groups of independents, having been controlled by independents in the 1970s and 1980s...

. It recently (Dec 2007) lost its bid to receive an extra £50m lottery grant (for a major expansion) in a public vote.

The tourist industry makes up around a quarter of the economy. Five million tourists visit Cornwall each year, mostly drawn from within the UK. Visitors to Cornwall are served by airports at Newquay
Newquay
Newquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....

 and Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

, whilst private jets, charters and helicopters are also served by Perranporth
Perranporth
Perranporth is a small seaside resort on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is southwest of Newquay and northwest of Truro. Perranporth and its long beach face the Atlantic Ocean....

 airfield; nightsleeper and daily rail services run between Cornwall, London and other regions of the UK.

Newquay
Newquay
Newquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....

 and Porthtowan
Porthtowan
Porthtowan is a small village in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom, and is a popular summer tourist destination which lies within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site. Porthtowan lies on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about west of St Agnes, north of...

 are popular destinations for surfers. In recent years, the Eden Project
Eden Project
The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, including the world's largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world....

 near St Austell
St Austell
St Austell is a civil parish and a major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the south coast approximately ten miles south of Bodmin and 30 miles west of the border with Devon at Saltash...

 has been a major financial success, drawing one in eight of Cornwall's visitors.

The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is a World Heritage Site which includes select mining landscapes across Cornwall and West Devon in the south west of the United Kingdom...

is a World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

 which includes select mining landscapes across Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 and West Devon
West Devon
West Devon is a local government district and borough in Devon, England. Towns in the district include Chagford, Okehampton, Princetown, and Tavistock, where the council is based....

 in the south west of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The Site was added to the World Heritage List during the 30th Session of the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Heritage Committee in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

, July 2006.

Agriculture, fishing and food

Other industries are fishing, although this has been significantly affected by EU fishing policies, (the Southwest Handline Fisherman's Association has started to revive the fishing industry), and agriculture, which has also declined significantly. The wet climate and relatively poor soil of Cornwall make it unsuitable for growing many arable crops. However, it is ideal for growing the rich grass required for dairying, leading to the production of Cornwall's other famous export, clotted cream
Clotted cream
Clotted cream is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms 'clots' or 'clouts'...

. The export of vegetable products, including flowers, became a profitable business with the expansion of the railways.
Ginsters
Ginsters
Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The biggest selling pasty maker in the UK, it specialises in making mass produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks.-History:...

 in Callington, Cornwall is a mass manufacturor of Cornish Pasties. Dairy Crest
Dairy Crest
Dairy Crest Group plc is a major dairy products company in the United Kingdom. Its brands include Cathedral City Cheddar cheese, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite, Clover, St Ivel and Frijj. The company delivers milk to around 1.1 million households via their milkmen...

 have a large cheese factory at Davidstow
Davidstow
Davidstow is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is north of Bodmin Moor straddling the A395 road about 3 miles north of Camelford....

 and A. E. Rodda of Scorrier
Scorrier
Scorrier is a village in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It is about 2 miles northeast of the centre of Redruth and 3 miles south-east of the coast at Porthtowan, on the A30 road at the junction of the A3047 road that leads west to Camborne and the B3298 road south to Carharrack...

 is a leading supplier of clotted cream. Furniss of Truro is well-known for its biscuits. There are many types of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

s brewed in Cornwall – those produced by Sharp's Brewery, Skinner's Brewery and St Austell Brewery
St Austell Brewery
St Austell Brewery is a brewery founded in 1851 by Walter Hicks in St Austell, Cornwall, England. The brewery's flagship beer is Tribute Ale, which accounts for around 80% of sales...

 are the best-known. There is some small scale production of wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

, mead
Mead
Mead , also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water. It may also be produced by fermenting a solution of water and honey with grain mash, which is strained immediately after fermentation...

 and cider
Cider
Cider or cyder is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from apple juice. Cider varies in alcohol content from 2% abv to 8.5% abv or more in traditional English ciders. In some regions, such as Germany and America, cider may be termed "apple wine"...

.

Mining and quarrying

Mining of tin, copper and some rarer metals was also an industry, but today no longer exists, and several defunct mines applied for status as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. However, the Camborne School of Mines
Camborne School of Mines
The Camborne School of Mines , commonly abbreviated to CSM, was founded in 1888. It is now a specialist department of the University of Exeter. Its research and teaching is related to the understanding and management of the Earth's natural processes, resources and the environment...

 is still a world centre of excellence in its field.

The extraction of china clay continues to be of considerable importance: the larger works are in the St Austell
St Austell
St Austell is a civil parish and a major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the south coast approximately ten miles south of Bodmin and 30 miles west of the border with Devon at Saltash...

 district. Extraction of slate and roadstone by quarrying still continues on a reduced scale: it was formerly an important industry and it has been carried on in Cornwall ever since the Middle Ages. Several quarries have been productive enough to need their own mineral railways.

World Heritage Status was granted to the Cornwall and West Devon Mining area on 14 July 2006. This will allow Cornwall County Council the opportunity to expand its Mineral Tramways Project of walking trails along with re-instatement of engine houses and other places of mining interest. Completion of this network is expected some time in 2008. http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/

Creative industries

Cornwall has been known as a popular residence for artists and writers since the end of the 19th century. In recent years Cornwall's creative industries have undergone significant growth, thanks in part to Objective One funding. There is now a significant creative industry in Cornwall, encompassing areas like graphic design, product design, web design, packaging design, environmental design, architecture, photography, arts and crafts. There are also many small publishers producing works mainly of local interest.

Taxation

In the October 2001 Business Age magazine, Kevin Cahill
Kevin Cahill (author)
Kevin Cahill FRSA is an author and investigative journalist, living in Devon, England...

, an author and investigative journalist for the Sunday Times, wrote about the economy of Cornwall. In The Killing of Cornwall, he noted that the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 Treasury extracts £1.95 billion in taxes out of Cornwall's GDP of £3.6 billion. The Treasury returns less than £1.65 billion, so there is a net loss to Cornwall of 300 million pounds, where the total earnings figure is 24% below the national average. Cornwall is getting poorer by the day, and Cahill offers this explanation: One very simple and easily provable answer is because the Government in London is raping Cornwall fiscally. The fiscal deficit of over £300 million all but completely explains the increasing pace of impoverishment in Cornwall. Cahill concludes his Business Age article with the lament that Cornwall will not recover until the gap between the tax 'take' and the Government's 'give' is at least neutralised and better still, reversed. ..

Deprivation and poverty

The official measures of deprivation and poverty at district and 'sub-ward' level show that there is great variation in poverty and prosperity in Cornwall with some areas among the poorest in England and others are among the top half in prosperity. For example, the ranking of 32,482 sub-wards in England in the index of multiple deprivation ranges from 819th (part of East Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...

) to 30,899th (part of Burraton
Burraton
Burraton is part of a town called Saltash in Cornwall, United Kingdom....

, Saltash
Saltash
Saltash is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a population of 14,964. It lies in the south east of Cornwall, facing Plymouth over the River Tamar. It was in the Caradon district until March 2009 and is known as "the gateway to Cornwall". Saltash means ash tree by...

), where the lower number represents the greater deprivation.

South West Regional Assembly and South West Regional Development Agency

On Tuesday 17 July 2007, Local Government Minister John Healey
John Healey
John Healey is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne since 1997, and former Minister of State for Housing and Planning. In 2010 he was elected to the shadow cabinet and appointed shadow health secretary...

 MP announced Government plans to abolish regional assemblies
Regional Assemblies in England
The Regional Assemblies of England were a group of indirectly elected regional bodies established originally under the name Regional Chambers by the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. They were abolished on 31 March 2010 and replaced by Local Authority Leaders’ Boards...

. Functions of regional assemblies are planned to pass to Regional Development Agencies in 2010. The South West Regional Assembly
South West Regional Assembly
The South West Regional Assembly was the regional assembly for the South West region of England, established in 1999.It was wound up in December 2008, and its functions taken on by the Strategic Leaders' Board, the executive arm of the newly established South West Councils. Cllr. Angus Campbell,...

 is due to be replaced by the South West Regional Development Agency in 2010. There was much opposition to the formation of the South West Regional Assembly with critics saying it is an unelected, unrepresentative and unaccountable "quango", and the area covered is an artificially imposed region and not natural. This opinion is based upon geography, arguing that having the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in the same region as Gloucestershire would be comparable as linking London with Yorkshire. The feeling is especially strong in Cornwall where in July 2000 Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow is a left-of-centre political party in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It primarily campaigns for devolution to Cornwall in the form of a Cornish Assembly, as well as social democracy and environmental protection.MK was formed as a pressure group in 1951, and contained as members activists...

 issued the "Declaration for a Cornish Assembly
Cornish Assembly
The Cornish Assembly is a proposed devolved regional assembly for Cornwall in the United Kingdom along the lines of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly.-Overview:...

". In Oct 2007 Lib Dem
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 MP Andrew George stated in a press release, "Just because the Government has approached the whole Regional Devolution agenda in entirely the wrong way, does not mean to say that the project itself should be ditched. If Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 are benefiting from devolution then Cornwall should learn from this and increase the intensity of its own campaign for devolution to a Cornish Assembly."

Further reading

  • Todd, A. C. & Laws, Peter (1972) The Industrial Archaeology of Cornwall. Newton Abbot: David & Charles
  • Worgan, George B. (1815) General View of the Agriculture of the County of Cornwall; drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture (1793) and Internal Improvement by G. B. Worgan. London: Sherwood, Neely & Jones (1st ed. 1811)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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