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4 Strategic paralysis - Why we need a strong Cornish level of government [p.8-9]

rpwills

Updated: Jan 27

 




Strategic paralysis [P8]
"Since the 1960s policy-makers in Cornwall have faced the increasingly intractable difficulties caused by a high population growth (only exceeded in the boom counties of   South East England) occurring in a dependent, peripheralised economy.  This results in a unique combination.  Development pressures have reached levels which threaten the environment and make a mockery of the notion of sustainability,…. There is a growing housing crisis for the indigenous population.
 
Policy-makers in Cornwall have consistently failed to confront these problems. One of the reasons for this is that they do not have sufficient strategic instruments to respond to them.  …. More importantly, policies are increasingly made outside Cornwall. This results in the imposition of inappropriate policies that actually increase the dependence of the Cornish economy while serving the interests of groups located elsewhere. [References to Devonwall agencies the SW Regional Planning Conference].  A lack of political will on the part of political parties and elite groups in Cornwall then combines with the absence of effective power to produced confused and incoherent policy-making.  This confusion is the amplified by the lack of any perceivable effect from local strategic policy-making. 
 
All this is fast producing a crisis of representation in Cornwall.. The institutions of representation – councils [Districts existed then] Members of Parliament, voluntary bodies, development agencies – no longer seem willing or able to represent Cornish interests or are unable to do anything practical to defend those interests.  Frustration and a deepening cynicism about the political process are the end results.
 
It seems not far short of incredible that the Local Government Review could have ever seriously contemplated the reverse of what was needed.  Instead of maintaining a level government that at least has the potential to overcome this strategic paralysis they at first actually suggested the abolition of this level. Instead joint planning boards and other ad-hoc arrangements were mooted to deal with strategic Cornwall-wide issues. These devices, as well as being more remote, less open and less democratic, merely recreate unnecessary tiers of  [P9] administration and are prone to inter- authority squabbling and parochialism. A regional tier of government based on Cornwall must be democratically accountable to the people of Cornwall. And, if strategic policy-making is to 'belong’ to Cornish communities then there must be a direct line of communication between the people and their representatives.
 
[Comment on agreeing with LGR that 2 or 3 unitary options for Cornwall would be inappropriate].  Just as strategic policy-making at geographical levels smaller than Cornwall does not harness the potential of the Cornish identity, neither does Strategic policy-making at geographical levels bigger than Cornwall. To integrate strategic policies and the cultural potential we have to devolve strategic powers to a Cornish level of government. Government in Cornwall will then gain the strategic instruments it requires to respond to the problems of peripheralised.”
 
Cornish Social and Economic Research Group, (1994), ‘Empowering Cornwall – the best government for the region and its communities’.

 

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