Cornwall Council

Cornwall Council Konsel Kernow
Whole council elected every four years
Coat of arms
Council logo
Type
Type	Unitary authority with combined authority powers
History
Founded	1 April 1889
Leadership
Chair	Pauline Giles, Conservative since 25 May 2021[1]
Leader	Linda Taylor, Conservative since 25 May 2021
Chief Executive	Kate Kennally since 11 January 2016[2]
Structure
Seats	87 (44 needed for a majority)
Political groups	Administration (43)   Conservative (42) Other parties (44)   Independent (20)   Liberal Democrat (13)   Labour (6)   Mebyon Kernow (5)   Green Party (1)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	6 May 2021
Next election	1 May 2025
Meeting place
Lys Kernow, Treyew Road, Truro, TR1 3AY
Website
www.cornwall.gov.uk

Cornwall Council (Cornish: Konsel Kernow), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (Cornish: Konteth Konsel Kernow), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having taken over district-level functions when the county's districts were abolished. The non-metropolitan county of Cornwall is slightly smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Isles of Scilly. The council is under no overall control since July 2024, when the Conservatives lost their majority.^[3] Its headquarters is Lys Kernow (also known as New County Hall) in Truro.

History

Elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The first elections to the county council were held in January 1889 and it formally came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first formal meeting at the Municipal Buildings in Truro. The first chairman of the council was William Edgcumbe, 4th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, a Conservative peer.^[4][5]

Until 1974 the lower tier of local government comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. In 1974 the lower tier of local government was reorganised and Cornwall was left with six districts: Caradon, Carrick, Kerrier, North Cornwall, Penwith, and Restormel.^[6]

On 1 April 2009, the six districts were abolished as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England and their functions taken over by the county council, which was renamed 'Cornwall Council'.^[7][8]

Devolution

The campaign for Cornish devolution began in 2000 with the founding of the Cornish Constitutional Convention, a cross-party, cross-sector association that campaigns for devolution to Cornwall.^[9] In 2009 the Liberal Democrat MP Dan Rogerson introduced a bill in parliament seeking to take power from Whitehall and regional quangos and pass it to Cornwall Council, with the intention of making the council an assembly similar to the National Assembly for Wales.^[10] In November 2010 the Prime Minister, David Cameron, suggested in comments to the local press that his government would "devolve a lot of power to Cornwall – that will go to the Cornish unitary authority."^[11] In 2011, the then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he would meet a cross party group, including the six Cornish MPs, to look at whether more powers could be devolved to Cornwall.^[12]

Some powers were eventually devolved from the government to Cornwall Council in 2015, relating to matters including bus franchising, education and apprenticeships, renewable energy and energy efficiency and integration of health and social care services.^[13][14] Further devolved powers were agreed in November 2023, including in relation to adult education and Cornish distinctiveness and promotion of the Cornish language.^[15]

Governance

Since 2009, Cornwall Council has provided both county-level and district-level services. The whole county is also divided into civil parishes, which form a second tier of local government.^[16]

Political control

The council was under Conservative majority control from the 2021 election until July 2024, since when it has been under no overall control.^[3]

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:^[17][18]

Two tier non-metropolitan county council

Party in control		Years
	Independent	1974–1985
	No overall control	1985–1993
	Liberal Democrats	1993–1997
	No overall control	1997–2005
	Liberal Democrats	2005–2009

Unitary authority

Party in control		Years
	No overall control	2009–2021
	Conservative	2021–2024
	No overall control	2024–present

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 2005 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
David Whalley[19]		Liberal Democrats	May 2005	4 Jun 2009
Alec Robertson[20][21]		Conservative	23 Jun 2009	16 Oct 2012
Jim Currie[22][23]		Conservative	16 Oct 2012	May 2013
John Pollard[24][25]		Independent	21 May 2013	May 2017
Adam Paynter[26][27]		Liberal Democrats	23 May 2017	21 May 2019
Julian German[28][29]		Independent	21 May 2019	May 2021
Linda Taylor[30][31]		Conservative	25 May 2021

Composition

Following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to July 2024, the composition of the council was:

Party		Councillors
	Conservative	43
	Independent	20
	Liberal Democrats	13
	Labour	5
	Mebyon Kernow	5
	Green	1
Total:		87

Mebyon Kernow and the Green councillor sit together as a group. Of the independent councillors, 15 form the "Independent Group", another four do not belong to a group and there is one 'Independent Conservative Aligned'.^[32][3] The next election is due in 2025.

Elections

See also: Cornwall Council elections

Cornwall Council Electoral Divisions map as of May 2021

Since the last boundary changes in 2021 the county has been divided into 87 electoral divisions, each electing one councillor. Elections are held every four years.^[33][34]

Premises

The council has its headquarters at Lys Kernow, also known as New County Hall, on Treyew Road in Truro. It was purpose-built for the council and opened in 1966.^[35]

Old County Hall, Truro: Council's headquarters 1912–1966

The quarter sessions which preceded the county council had generally met at the Shire Hall in Bodmin. From its first meeting in 1889 the county council chose instead to meet in Truro, where it initially met at the Municipal Buildings (later called City Hall, now the Hall for Cornwall). In 1912 the council moved to a new building at County Hall on Station Road in Truro, which served as the council's headquarters until 1966.^[36][37][38]

Cultural services

Among the services provided by the council is a public library service which consists of a main library in Truro and smaller libraries in towns and some villages throughout Cornwall. There are also the following special libraries: Cornwall Learning Library, Cornish Studies Library, the Education Library Service, and the Performing Arts Library, as well as a mobile library service based at Threemilestone.^[39]

Cultural projects

Cornwall Council is promoting ten cultural projects as part of a five-year culture strategy. One project is the development of a National Theatre of Cornwall, a collaboration of the Hall for Cornwall, Kneehigh Theatre, Eden Project and Wildworks. Cornwall Council has based its idea on the successful National Theatres of Scotland and Wales.^[40]

Another of the projects is the proposed creation of a National Library of Cornwall to resolve inadequacies with the current storage of archives.^[41] It is hoped that this will bring some important documents concerning Cornish history back to Cornwall as well as providing better public access to those records already held. Cornwall Council is also involved in the project to build a Stadium for Cornwall.

Cornish ethnic and national identity

Cornwall Council backs the campaign for the Cornish to be recognised as a National Minority in the UK. The council's then chief executive Kevin Lavery wrote a letter to the Government in 2010, writing, "Cornwall Council firmly believes that the UK Government should recognise the Cornish as a national minority under the terms of the Framework Convention." Adding that, "Cornwall Council believes that the Government's current restricted interpretation is discriminatory against the Cornish and contradicts the support it gives to Cornish culture and identity through its own departments."^[42] Cornwall Council's support was officially reaffirmed as council policy in 2011 with the publication of the Cornish National Minority Report 2, signed and endorsed by the then leaders of every political grouping on the council.^[43] The council took an active role in the promotion of the options for registering Cornish ethnicity and national identity on the 2011 UK Census.^[44] The Cornish people were finally recognised as a National Minority by the British Government on 24 April 2014 and incorporated into the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities giving the Cornish the same status as the United Kingdom's other Celtic peoples, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.^[45]

International relations

Since 2008 Cornwall Council and the former county council, together with Cornwall Enterprise, and Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership, have been involved with a Protocol of Cooperation between Cornwall and the Conseil général du Finistère in Brittany. The protocol aims to allow the two regions to work more closely on topics of common interest and engage in a knowledge exchange with the possibility of jointly applying for European funding.^[46] Cornwall is also a member of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, a partnership of European regions, which aims to promote and highlight the value of these regions to Europe. Cornwall comes under the Atlantic Arc Commission sub-division of 30 regions, which has been used to advertise the potential of renewable energy off the Cornish coast to Europe.^[47][48]

A scheme arising from these partnerships is MERiFIC (Marine Energy in Far Peripheral and Island Communities) which seeks to advance the adoption of marine energy across the two regions, including the Isles of Scilly.^[49] The project has received £4 million of European funding that will be spent in Cornwall and Brittany.^[50]

Cornwall County Council organised an event in Brussels in 2008 to promote various aspects of Cornwall, including the Cornish language, food and drink and showcasing Cornwall's design industry. This was part of the Celtic Connections programme of events put together by the Celtic nations as a showcase for culture in Europe.^[51]

Various fact finding missions have been organised by councillors to study how other regions and small nations of Europe govern themselves successfully. Independent councillor, Bert Biscoe, organised a fact finding mission to Guernsey in 2011 to see if the island's system of government could be adapted to work in Cornwall.^[52]

Since 2010 Cornwall Council has been a full observer member of the British–Irish Council due to the Cornish language falling under the BIC's areas of work.^[53]

Economic projects

Cornwall Council, in partnership with the Eden Project, is bidding to have the world's first Green Investment Bank based in Cornwall. The council is also working with the NHS and Eden to tackle fuel poverty by creating a Cornwall Together co-op which will buy electricity at lower-than-market prices.^[54] No further progress has been made on this since it was originally proposed.

Cornwall Council are servicing nearly 30 long term lender option borrower option loans (LOBOs) totalling £394 million. The council is locked into some of the deals until the year 2078, paying interest at more than double the current market rate.^[55]

Notable members

• Dick Cole, leader of Mebyon Kernow and member for St Dennis and St Enoder^[56]
• Loveday Jenkin, deputy leader of Mebyon Kernow and member for Crowan, Sithney and Wendron

See also

• Council of the Isles of Scilly
• Cornish Nationalism

References

1. "Council minutes, 25 May 2021". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
2. Johnstone, Peter (19 January 2016). "New Cornwall Council chief executive is in for the long haul". Falmouth Packet. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
3. Noble, Seb (26 July 2024). "Conservatives lose majority on Cornwall Council". BBC News Online. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
4. "Cornwall County Council". Cornubian and Redruth Times. 5 April 1889. p. 7. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
5. "Timeline". Into Cornwall. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
6. "Carrick District Council". What do they know?. 4 March 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
7. "Cornwall Council becomes the new unitary authority for Cornwall". Celtic Counties. 25 May 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
8. "The Cornwall (Structural Change) Order 2008", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2008/491, retrieved 19 February 2024
9. Cornish Constitutional Convention, About, archived from the original on 23 August 2014, retrieved 19 July 2014
10. "Calls for More Power to Cornwall/". Dan Rogerson official site. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
11. "Cameron on Cornwall, cuts and the coalition". This is Cornwall. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
12. "Clegg to discuss greater powers for Duchy with Cornish MPs". Western Morning News. 16 November 2011. Archived from the original on 17 November 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
13. "Cornwall devolution deal". gov.uk. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
14. "Groundbreaking Deal for Cornwall is signed". West Briton. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
15. "Cornwall devolution deal (Kevambos Digresennans Kernow) 2023". gov.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
16. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
17. "Compositions Calculator". The Elections Centre. University of Exeter. Retrieved 26 November 2024. (Put "Cornwall" in search box to see specific results.)
18. "Local election results: Cornwall". BBC News Online. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
19. "Leader quits after critics' abuse". BBC News. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
20. "Council minutes, 23 June 2009". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
21. "Vote of no confidence in Cornwall Council leader". ITV News. 27 November 2024. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
22. "Council minutes, 16 October 2012". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
23. "New Council Leader at Cornwall Council". ITV News. 16 October 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
24. "Council minutes, 21 May 2013". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
25. Edwards, Amber (12 December 2022). "John Pollard has died as tributes paid to former Cornwall Council leader". Cornwall Live. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
26. "Council minutes, 23 May 2017". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
27. Whitehouse, Richard (21 May 2019). "New leader of Cornwall Council to be elected". Cornwall Live. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
28. "Council minutes, 21 May 2019". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
29. "German named new Council leader". Business Cornwall. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
30. "Council minutes, 25 May 2021". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
31. Whitehouse, Richard (11 May 2021). "Cornwall Council's first female leader announces new Cabinet 'to serve taxpayers'". Rayo. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
32. "Councillors by party". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
33. "The Cornwall (Electoral Changes) Order 2019", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2019/1088, retrieved 19 February 2024
34. "The Cornwall (Electoral Changes) Order 2021", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2021/106, retrieved 19 February 2024
35. Historic England. "New County Hall including terrace pool surrounds and bridge to courtyard (Grade II) (1323700)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
36. Historic England. "Old County Hall (Grade II) (1282633)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
37. "Cornwall County Council: Opening of the New County Hall". Royal Cornwall Gazette. Truro. 15 August 1912. p. 8. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
38. "County Hall open day". 28 November 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
39. "Your Local Library". Cornwall Council. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
40. "National Theatre hope highlighted by report". West Briton. 2 February 2012. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
41. Cornwall Council – Historic Cornwall Advisory Group – Bagas Kusulya Kernow Istorek – 29 June 2011
42. "Cornish minority bid gets a big boost". West Briton. 22 April 2010. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
43. Ian Saltern (16 November 2011). "The Cornish National Minority Report 2 (Excerpts)". Europäisches Journal für Minderheitenfragen. 4 (3): 187–205. doi:10.1007/s12241-011-0019-x. S2CID 146337220.
44. "2011 Census: Cornish identity". Cornwall County Council. 5 August 2011. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
45. Danny Alexander; Stephen Williams (24 April 2014). "Cornish granted minority status within the UK" (Press release). HM Treasury and Department for Communities and Local Government. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
46. "Protocol of Co-operation – Cornwall and Finistère". Cornwall.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
47. "European Partnerships". Cornwall.gov.uk. 23 March 2010. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
48. "Cornwall Council – Cornwall Councillor calls on European leaders". Cornwall.gov.uk. 28 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
49. "European Projects". Cornwall.gov.uk. 20 January 2012. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
50. "Cornwall Council – £4m for renewable energy project in the South". Cornwall.gov.uk. 9 May 2011. Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
51. "Promoting Cornwall to the World". 1 July 2009. Archived from the original on 1 November 2010.
52. "Guernsey government may be model for Cornwall". BBC News. 23 August 2011. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
53. Read, David (2014). Cornish National Minority Advisory Report. Truro: Cornwall Council. p. 22.
54. "Eden Project tackles fuel poverty with co-op plan". BBC News. 14 February 2012. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016.
55. "Taxpayers pay massive interest on council loans | Cornish Guardian". Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
56. Dale, Helen. "Dick Cole re-elected leader of Mebyon Kernow". Falmouth Packet (online edition). Retrieved 30 November 2017.

External links

• Official website