We had an interesting presentation today from Dr Andrea Siodmok, Programme Director of Dott Cornwall. Dott Cornwall is a Partnership established by the Design Council, Cornwall Council and the University College Falmouth to deliver a series of design-led community engagement projects, addressing some of the challenging social and economic issues facing people in Cornwall today.

As a designer I’m very excited about the potential of Dott, and as someone who lives in Cornwall I really hope it can deliver. I am especially keen to know exactly what are ‘…the challenging social and economic issues facing people in Cornwall today…‘ I asked some friends & family members to suggest a few points and did a bit of digging. It’s far from comprehensive, and probably not in the right order, but here is what I managed to collate

1. Lack of affordable housing. Cornwall is a classic example of a two-speed economy, where most locals toil away while a few rich incomers buy up all the half-decent properties, and local services start providing for their tastes and budgets, so the cost of living climbs out of reach of the average working family. Plus second home ownership is destroying communities.

‘Cornwall has the biggest gap in Britain between the average house price and average salary, with house prices 12 times average earnings.’ Angela Balakrishnan – The Guardian, February 2nd 2008

‘Poverty in Cornwall is wildly under-represented, the stats say the average wage here is £317 a week. But we can all say we know loads of people on £150.’ Eden Project founder Tim Smit.

2. Water. Cornish residents pay more for water than anywhere else in the UK yet the quality is poor.

‘3% of the total population have been paying for 30% of the beach clean-up, and in the poorest part of the country no less.’ MP Matthew Taylor, May 30th 2007

3. Lack of infrastructure to encourage new industry. Cornwall’s old industries are in their death throes, and 25% of its economy revolves around tourism.

4. Rural isolation has lead to high levels of depression & anxiety.

5. Improper investment of European aid. After five years of Objective One, Cornwall is still in the lowest GDP of Europe (hence Convergence funding). Cornwall was awarded £700 million in European aid which went to SWRDA in Bristol who took a huge cut as payment for managing the money. Cornish money should be managed by people elected in Cornwall, for Cornwall. This money is being reduced due to the growth of Government quangos. (It will interesting to see if the Dott scheme is perceived to be yet another waste of Cornwall’s money?)

6. Public Transport. Cornwall has the worst public transport infrastructure. Due to high costs and poor service there is no incentive to use public transport. First Great Western, was named in 2008 as the UK’s poorest-performing rail service.

‘The infrastructure is appalling, It takes longer to get from Penzance to Plymouth than it does from London to Lille.’ Richard Clark, Mebyon Kernow.

7. Lack of local health provision. Cornwall’s NHS is underfunded and has to deal with an increase in cases in the summer (visitors). There are moves to centralise services and move some wards to Plymouth making it even worse.

8. Cornwall is getting warmer and wetter. Has there been an impact assessment on the scenario of Cornwall’s tourists going elsewhere due to flooding?

9. Cornwall has an aging population, 22% of Cornwall’s population are now pensioners.

10. Low wages and a reliance on seasonal employment mean that young people have to leave Cornwall for quality careers. There is no real policy to encourage graduates to stay in Cornwall.

Other interesting bits & bobs: