Cornish Guardian (St. Austell & Fowey)
Councillors voice fears over the loss
CORNWALL Council is one of a number of authorities in England facing a collective £300 million funding shortfall to help young people facing homelessness, according to new analysis.
Centrepoint has estimated that an increasing number of young people are being turned away by councils which “do not have the means” to fulfil their legal duties in carrying out an assessment of someone who asks them for help.
The charity, which works to tackle youth homelessness, has commissioned research which suggested that local authorities would need 15% more funding from the Government to meet the needs of all of the young people – aged 16 to 24 – approaching them for homelessness support.
Centrepoint estimated last year, using Freedom of Information requests to local authorities, that more than a third of the 119,300 young people in England who approached their councils for homelessness support between April 2022 and March 2023 were not assessed.
Latest analysis suggests that, if all the young people turned away were assessed as normal, councils would need 15% more funding from the Government to meet their needs.
That equates to a shortfall of around £332m.
The research suggested there is a more than £10m shortfall in the local housing authorities in Cornwall, Liverpool, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, and Bexley.
Local housing authorities have statutory duties to give free advice and help to households who are homeless or at risk of becoming so.
Alicia Walker, head of policy, research and campaigns at Centrepoint, said: “Councils have a legal duty to assess anyone who presents as homeless, but we are deeply concerned that they do not have the means to carry out these duties.
“It’s not good enough that so many young people are not getting the chance of that assessment, let alone accessing support.
“More than 119,000 young people in England faced homelessness last year, a record high, and we estimate an increasing proportion of them are being turned away without an assessment.”
ACORNWALL councillor said he fears there will be “no farmers left” in the county if productive agricultural land is used for solar farms.
Brian Clemens’ comments came during a debate calling for Cornwall Council to establish the right balance between use of land for agriculture and solar farms, particularly the rise in controversial industrialsized solar parks.
A motion was tabled by Conservative councillor Alan Jewell, who represents Falmouth Boslowick and is also a farmer, for the local authority’s chief planning officer to commission research to explore the economic role of Grade 3 land to ensure that planning decisions take into account the right balance between use of land for food production and solar farms.
It follows a number of contentious planning applications for industrial solar farms in Cornwall.
He told a full meeting of the council at New County Hall in Truro last Tuesday: “This is not a motion to stop solar farms or to stop farmers from diversifying, as many of us have, but that’s not to be at the expense of our core purpose to feed the people of Cornwall and further afield.
“What we have in Cornwall is unique to the UK. We can grow more of everything and at an earlier time, so all I’m asking you is let us take a closer look at our land and what’s been farmed over the last 10 years, so we can decide the future role of solar arrays as part of the mix of farming enterprises in a diversified economy.
“If we don’t pause and re-evaluate what is happening, we run the risk of losing large areas of good land and instead turning it into an industrial landscape alien from what a mixed farming enterprise should be.”
He added: “The more food we import, the more the carbon footprint, so the industrial-scale solar farms will not offset the carbon caused by more imports. Surely, that does not add up when we can grow it here in the first place? With a very unstable world, surely it’s better to be more self-sufficient in our food security than relying on imports? At the end of the day, you could live
LESS than half the fishing quotas negotiated by the UK for 2024 are in line with scientific advice for conserving stocks, a Government assessment has found.
The sustainability of limits for fish catches negotiated by the UK with the European Union and other countries such as Norway for this year has been assessed by the Government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). It has found that less than without electricity but you certainly cannot live without food.”
Cllr Lionel Pascoe (Conservative, Gwinear-gwithian and Hayle East) seconded the motion.
He told a packed chamber: “I’m not against solar panels, they have their place with climate change.
“However, they have to be in the right place – either on brownfield sites, commercial buildings, new developments or low grade farmland. There is enough low-grade agricultural land in Cornwall to put solar panels on to support climate change. There is very little land which is 3a and above, and 90% of the land in west and mid-cornwall is 3b which is very valuable for food production. With 3b land you can double crop, which means you can produce two crops in one year, whether it’s brassica, potatoes or cereals.”
Cllr Martyn Alvey, Conservative portfolio holder for environment and climate change, agreed that planning policy needs to better identify and protect what is prime crop-growing land from that with solar development potential. “Hence the nub of this motion to better define Grade 3 land and how half (46%) of the catch limits negotiated by countries were in line with the international scientific advice for conserving fish stocks.
The figure is an increase on 2023, when just 40% of the fishing quotas were in line with the scientific advice produced by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the benchmark for sustainable fishing.
However, marine conservation campaigners said it was not good for it is to be used.”
Independent councillor for Land’s End Brian Clemens, who has been heavily involved with Cornwall Young Farmers, said: “It saddens me that farmers in Cornwall cannot retire and enjoy their retirement like other people do because for generations we have not looked after farmers. If this motion is not taken notice of, it will be another nail in the coffin of farmers, farm workers and their families.
“I do not disagree with solar farms but the land in Cornwall of this grade is different from the land of this grade in any other county in this country. We can produce two crops a year, as you’ve heard. We have a duty, we have committed to climate change, but the right thing in the fishermen, fish or coastal communities for the Government to allow overfishing at such a level. Charles Clover, co-founder of Blue Marine Foundation, labelled the catch limit negotiated by the UK and EU for Celtic Sea cod as “outrageous”.
Celtic Sea cod is one the fish stocks where the scientific advice for catch levels has been set at zero, in this particular case for the past six years, due to huge declines, but governments have negotiated that 644 right place. My fear is that we will be losing land that will be productive and we will have no farmers left.”
Cllr Steve Arthur, who is now a “stand alone Conservative” after breaking away from the Tory group at Cornwall Council, citing the number of solar farms being approved as one of the reasons, said: “I support this motion, as saving 3b land is fantastic but I do worry it’s not enough. We also have to consider if people come on holiday down here really want to see row after row after row of solar panels, and ‘I remember Cornwall it’s that glass place, isn’t it?’”
Jennifer Cruse (Conservative, Lanivet, Blisland and Bodmin St Lawrence) said she supported the motion: “Cornwall is a beautiful place and we haven’t really discussed the visual impact which I consider is quite detrimental. We need solar power but we have to be careful where we put it.”
Not all councillors were in favour of the motion. Cllr Dominic Fairman said he respected the councillors who had brought the motion but added: “I do wonder what planet they’re on. We have just broken global temperature records for the tenth straight month in a row.
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It’s not good enough that so many young people are not getting the chance of that assessment, let alone accessing support
Alice Walker
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What we have in Cornwall is unique to the UK. We can grow more of everything and at an earlier time
Cllr Alan Jewell
tonnes of Celtic Sea cod can be caught in 2024 as “bycatch” by vessels targeting other fisheries.
Mr Clover said: “It’s absolutely outrageous to allow a quota equivalent to the entire adult spawning population, which is what they have done with Celtic Sea cod ... it is not good for fishermen, or fish, or our coastal communities for the Government to go on allowing overfishing to the extent the Cefas report identifies.”