MEMBERS of Cornwall Council have agreed to write to the Labour Government condemning it for persistently “snubbing” Cornwall in a £5.8 billion funding scheme to help deprived areas of the UK.

Cornwall has 11 neighbourhoods in the top ten per cent of most deprived areas of England, but hasn’t received a penny from the Government’s Pride in Place funding programme, designed to help disadvantaged neighbourhoods over a decade.

The latest recipients of Pride in Place funding were announced in March, taking the total to 379 areas across the UK. Despite four separate rounds of funding, Cornwall has received nothing even though it faces some of the lowest wages, highest levels of in-work poverty and deepest structural economic challenges in the country.

At the full Cornwall Council meeting on Tuesday (April 21), Liberal Democrat councillor Ruth Gripper tabled a motion calling for the Government to ensure regeneration funding reaches Cornwall, to review its approach and publish its rural proofing remit for funding.

“Some places are receiving £2m every year for a decade,” said Cllr Gripper. “That’s £20m in the hands of local people to spend on the things that matter to them. Just imagine what that could do here in Cornwall.”

She continued: “There was outrage in the autumn when Cornwall was overlooked, and we thought, surely this time something must be coming this way - but no. The recent announcement has shown yet again that Cornwall’s communities are just not on the Government’s radar.

“But we’ve had some really robust research published recently from Plymouth Marjon University showing that rural deprivation looks and feels different, and the way these things are currently measured just doesn’t reflect the reality of life for people in deprived communities in rural areas. It means Cornwall misses out time and time again.”

Almost every councillor in the chamber supported the motion.