Invest in leisure centres not air links to London, say Cornish Greens
“We understand that under the terms of the deal with Eastern Airways, from December Cornwall Council will be paying the airline £439,000 a year to subsidise these flights.
This is exactly the same amount it would need to pay its leisure centre operator GLL to keep open the public sports centres and swimming pools in Cornwall that are now under threat of closure.
“There’s a reason why Eastern Airlines cannot operate this route without subsidy, and that’s because many of the flights that previously ran between Cornwall and London were virtually empty. Effectively, what the council has agreed to do is to pay for empty seats on aircraft that pour carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
“This is a grotesque misuse of our council tax. It benefits only a very small number of people who prefer to use the most damaging form of transport to and from London rather take a train like the rest of us. And it goes directly against the council’s stated aim of reducing the emissions that are causing catastrophic climate impacts.
“By contrast, using this money to keep the leisure centres open would benefit the health and wellbeing of large numbers of residents, enabling them to continue accessing sports and exercise facilities in their communities without having to drive long distances, with all the carbon emissions that would involve.
“It’s particularly ironic that this decision comes just after COP26. When he was urging world leaders to take stronger action on climate, Boris Johnson told them that the clock stands at one minute to midnight.
“For once he was right, and the Glasgow Climate Pact stressed that both national and local governments need to dramatically up their game in tackling carbon emissions.
“Subsidising carbon-intensive flights to and from Cornwall is doing exactly the opposite, and it makes a nonsense of the Council’s commitment to strive for ‘greener travel’ as part of the effort to achieve net-zero emissions.”
Four leisure centres in Cornwall face closure, in Falmouth, Launceston, Saltash and Wadebridge, along with a hydrotherapy pool in St Austell. A petition by independent councillors calling for any final decision on their closure to be debated and put to a vote at a full meeting of Cornwall Council has attracted well over 5000 signatures, which means that the proposed closure will now be debated by the council.