Cornwall Council denies ditching beaches and parks to save millions is ‘fire sale’

Cornwall Council’s deputy leader has denied the devolution of 2,000 local authority-owned land is a “fire sale”. The council has agreed to sell or give away beaches, parks, car parks, green spaces, playgrounds, chapels and other properties in a bid to make millions of pounds in savings.

At a meeting of the council’s Conservative Cabinet today (Wednesday, May 8), deputy leader and head of resources Cllr David Harris denied the authority was “returning assets to any Tom, Dick or Harry at any price to make a quick buck. over a number of years, they will be looking at a whole range of assets that in some way, shape or form don’t really fit as council assets.”

He said up to £6.9m of new savings had been made by the cash-strapped council, which included the devolution of land assets, the list of which has not yet been publicly disclosed. The council ended the 2023/24 financial year on March 31 with an overspend of just over £3m against a net budget of £707.667m.

Read more: ‘No listing’ of 2,000 Cornish assets plans to offer

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The net income budget for next year is now £770.857m, with a draw from council reserves of £11.4m.

Cllr Harris stressed that the savings made by shedding the 2,000 assets was not a “fire sale”. He added: “Ultimately these could be passed on to town or parish councils, community groups or transferred to one of our independent companies.

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Council leader Cllr Linda Taylor pointed out that this had already started with the ‘sale’ of Pendennis headland to Falmouth residents for £1 last year.

Falmouth Labor councilor Jayne Kirkham was quick to respond to this: “The reason the transfer ever came about was because GLL wanted to change the contract (of the Ships and Castles leisure centre), Cornwall Council agreed and our pool was closed. there was a clamor in the town about the possibility of that land being sold, which is why Falmouth Town Council took it up.’

She added: “There were devolution packages agreed with the town councils a few years ago and lately some of them have been told they should pay money for those parcels of land instead of just being transferred what we thought was the initial agreement more will happen and what are the plans for the car parks We were told there is a list of 2,000 assets…”

At this point she was interrupted by Cllr Taylor who said that Cllr Kirkham had swayed out of the way of her point about Pendennis headland. She said she would give Cllr Kirkham a written response to what was agreed “years ago”. Cllr Harris responded by saying: “We are taking a slow and steady approach to this.”

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Cllr Kirkham said whether the land assets would be sold or not: “It seems the approach has changed from simply giving away parcels of land to looking at the market value and selling them.”

“They’re horses for classes,” replied Cllr Harris. “Some of that will have value and we have a duty to get the best value. Best value can include community value. So some assets will be sold for the best value we can get, others will make perfect sense to do nothing at all, while others will be transferred to a local community group or council at minimal cost.”

He added: “I’ll say it again, it’s not a fire sale or a throwaway anyway you can.”