A truly sustainable economy

Cornwall's reliance on tourism benefits very few who live here. Most people who work in it are paid low, seasonal wages and are forced to live in poor housing (ironically owing to the use of other housing by tourists.) This is neither desirable nor sustainable as people, especially our young people, move away for other work. This has become a community of people who "pass through", easily witnessed by the changes in shop ownership and the faces serving us in our beach-side cafés. We still 'cobble together' our livings with several jobs, in a way not so much different from the miner/farmer/fisher communities who preceded us. We are still almost the poorest region of Europe.

We need to provide the means for people and industries to grow, to take advantage of the creativity that abounds locally and in the worlds we are connected to through our internet communications. Geography should not be our excuse: we have at least one port (Falmouth) which might be developed for exports. We should be using the airport/spaceport to pioneer more sustainable air transport (the need for it will not go away). We should take control of the railway infrastructure problems though Devon and Cornwall because the government is clearly not going to do it for us.

We should be feeding ourselves and not relying on imports. We have the climate for growers/farmers to plant new crops. We should be encouraging more young people into sustainable agriculture and providing modern methods of farming which will encourage others to work on our fields.

Instead of continually expanding our struggling coastal towns, we should be building entirely new villages with schools, surgeries, leisure and community facilities and good public transport links to provide sustainable places for people to live and bring up their families. To do this we have to seriously tackle our transport infrastructure. All this, in itself, could provide local work for many decades to come.

Whatever my personal view of 'second and other home ownership' it is legal and can't be prevented. To be honest, some of the cottages in our old fishing ports are not easily suited to modern family life (I've cleaned a few and do know this). All home owners, whether resident or absent, should be subject to the same local and national taxation rules and they should be vigorously enforced. Tourism levies could help in the short-term.

In summary, Cornwall needs to stop thinking of itself as a pretty museum here to serve others but to create its own identity which others might want to enjoy and support. Many of our local voluntary organisations such as St Ives Community Orchard, Community Land Trust, St Ives BID and the plethora of local responses to the current Covid-19 crisis show us the way. We must not lose what we have spontaneously created.