A charter for Cornwall- new campaign.
A new website has been set up following the news that a new campaign would be launched to protect Cornwall and the Cornish. This is by far not the first campaign launched to create more power for Cornwall and its inhabitants, as we see all power bar 1% resides in Westminster who has openly declared war upon the Cornish. A list below mentions past campaigns and what they proposed, links to the websites are listed too. But first, the newly created campaign:
A Charter for Cornwall http://www.charterforcornwall.com/
The Charter for Cornwall campaigns to increase community-level influence over the future of our land. We need to change Cornwall Council for the better by electing better councillors. We need a Council that is more open, more responsive and more willing to listen to residents’ concerns. In the short-term we will be supporting those candidates in next May’s local elections who stand for our values. In the longer-term we must work to end the Council’s pursuit of unsustainable growth policies.
The four principles of the Charter for Cornwall are
1) Protect our Cornish heritageCouncillors have been unable to stop Cornwall becoming an easy ride for property developers. They have allowed the Council’s leadership to re-impose a growth policy that has failed Cornwall since the 1970s. Cornwall is experiencing rates of housebuilding and planning applications 50% higher than east of the Tamar. In relative terms, our loss of countryside is one of the highest in the UK. This cannot continue.
2) Provide genuinely affordable housing
The Government has cynically redefined ‘affordability’ to include housing at 80% of market prices that are simply unaffordable for most local people. It has abandoned social housing and allowed Right to Buy to decimate our social housing stock. Councillors must lobby to restore a genuinely affordable housing policy by once more investing in large-scale social housing projects, while limiting the growth of unaffordable open market housing.
3) Put limits on second homes
The extension of second home ownership has destroyed community life in many of our coastal towns and villages. Because of demand for second homes, more houses have to be built and more countryside ruined than most other regions. This cannot go on. St Ives has shown the way. Now councillors must build on that, start by gaining more powers and supporting tougher measures to reduce the number of second homes.
4) Plan for Cornish communities, not developers’ profits
The planning system is rigged. Blatantly unsound data have been used to drive the housing target up to an unnecessary 52,500 minimum that will see some of our towns expand by as much as 40% in just 20 years. Government inspectors override local democratic decisions. The National Planning Policy Framework is strongly biased in favour of developers. Councillors must work – consistently and urgently – to secure the devolution of strategic planning policy to a Cornwall level.
Some past campaigns are:
Save Cornwall’s Green Fields https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-cornwall-s-green-fields
We want MP’s to lobby DCLG for a change in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), so that there is no development on green fields in Cornwall, unless explicitly supported by a Neighbourhood Plan.
Cornwall for Change http://wp.cornwallforchange.org/
Dear Friend,
This is an opportunity for you to demand that we, as citizens of Cornwall, are treated fairly and given our just due by central Government. Please sign our petition at the head of this page.
Cornwall for Change represents the interests of over 70 town and parish councils who have expressed strong concern over the governance of Cornwall, where 25% of households are on the edge of poverty. In order for us to improve our financial situation, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly were due to receive £458m from the European Commission during the period 2014-2020. So far we’ve not had a penny, yet money has already been transferred from Brussels to London and is held by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
According to the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), the South-East of England receives £5426 per capita of the spending from Government on infrastructure, compared to just £474 in the South-West. That’s a ratio of 11:1.
Cornwall Council’s total debt in January 2015 (not including their pension fund deficit of £369m) was £826m and interest on this is being repaid at £58m per annum. This is clearly unsustainable and must be reduced as a matter of urgency.
We therefore propose the immediate transfer of all EU monies due to Cornwall, to be held by a trusted body such as the established charity Cornwall Community Foundation (CCF). The bulk of the capital should then be used to reduce Cornwall Council’s debt (and thus interest payments) with immediate effect. The Foundation may also be asked to establish an ‘evergreen’ fund from an agreed amount of the capital. This fund would invest in local businesses in such a way that the capital remains available for future generations.
The petition to respectfully demand the transfer of EU monies from DCLG will close on the 20th July, before preparations for wider negotiations with the EU commence.
Please sign it and encourage your friends to sign it too, Cornwall depends on you.
One and All,
Cornwall for Change, A Change for Cornwall
Cornish Constitutional Convention http://www.cornishassembly.org/
Cornwall suffers from being at the periphery of the state, miles away from the capital and the majority of public spending and decision making. We need real devolution, to control our own destiny and have a say in the important decisions that matter. To rebuild Cornwall’s economy and make our little part of this island a better place.
The Cornish Constitutional Convention was formed in November 2000 with the objective of establishing a devolved Assembly for Cornwall (Senedh Kernow).
The Convention is a cross-party, cross-sector association with a strong consensus of support both in Cornwall and elsewhere. It is not campaigning for any form of separatism or independence.
The aim of the Convention is to establish a form of modern governance which strengthens Cornwall, her role in the affairs of the country, and positively addresses the problems that have arisen from more than a century of growing isolation and loss of confidence.
In 2001, 50,000 people or 10% of the population of Cornwall signed a petition calling for the creation of a Cornish Assembly. But the Government, which had delivered devolution settlements to Scotland and Wales, ignored the declarations and refused to consider demands for greater powers for Cornwall.
The Cornish Fighting Fund https://thecornishrepublican.wordpress.com/category/cornish-police/
Back in August 2007 Our Kingdom published the article –You can’t write us out of existence– which described the strength of feeling for the Cornish identity coupled with the unusually pig headed attitude of government in giving us any form of recognition.
This stubborn behavior stretches from refusing devolution even when presented with proof of a popular demand to providing a long list of contradictory reasons why the Cornish should not be included in the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM).
The Convention deals with a plethora of minority rights issues ranging from non-discrimination, equality before the law, the avoidance of assimilation and the promotion, through educational and other programs, of the minority identity, language, history and culture. The inclusion of the Cornish within the Convention has been the objective of the pressure group Cornwall 2000 and Cornish activist John Angarrack since the late 90’s.
The months surrounding the release of Angarracks’ latest book –Scat t’Larrups? Resist and Survive (reviewed here)- have seen a flurry of activity in Cornish circles culminating on the 5th of this month with the opening of a Cornish Fighting Fund, the intention being to mount a legal challenge against the governments decision to exclude the Cornish from recognition within the terms of the Convention.
