Cornwall councillor Andrew Long has written to the chief executive at Cornwall Council to ask for plans to cut adult education services to be halted.

Seven centres in Cornwall will be closed by the end of February in a decision made by the Adult Education Board of Governors after a targeted consultation of users and stakeholders.

The councillor for Callington and St Dominic said: “I am very concerned about not only the announcement of the closures, but the way in which the decision has been made, and the massive impact on the East of Cornwall.

“The fact that the East has a more dispersed population has once again not been taken into account by the council.

“This decision, taken by officers without direct consultation with elected members, once again shows what a travesty the ‘no surprises’ protocol is, and that they really don’t care about the tens of thousands of Cornish people who live east of Bodmin.”

The closure of the centres including Callington, Torpoint and Saltash, alongside Camelford, Launceston, St Austell and Penzance was announced just before Christmas. Liskeard will be the only centre open for residents from South East Cornwall.

Liberal Democrats on Cornwall Council are also asking for plans to be stopped and for a meaningful consultation to be held with local communities, town councils, and other stakeholders to explore alternative solutions that ‘preserve access to adult education across Cornwall’.

Councillor Hilary Frank, representing Saltash Essa, and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Children and Families at Cornwall Council, stated: “The proposed closures are a short-sighted response to financial pressures.

“Adult education centres are more than just places of learning; they are lifelines for individuals seeking to improve their skills, gain employment, and contribute positively to our community.

“Closing these centres, especially without thorough consultation with local stakeholders, undermines the value of education and the future prosperity of Cornwall.”

The Adult Education Centre at Saltash has been based in the Saltash Wesley Methodist Church for the last six years. Church administrator Jo Couch said: “It’s very sad news for our local area. As a church we see Linked into Learning as a way for people to move on with their lives.

“We help them to link in to support services around them such as St Petrocs, to link into the food bank, to the addiction support service. We do a lot of signposting here.

“We also operate as a warm space and we do lunches twice a week that anyone can come to and they don’t have to pay.” Students can be issued with emergency food vouchers by the church if needed as well as emergency food packages, she adds.

“People that access that often want to do some learning to move on with their lives. If we take away the facility to do that in our town, a lot of people won’t be able to access it because they don’t have the means to travel to Liskeard, especially if they have additional needs, a mental health need or disability.

“We’re talking about often the most vulnerable of people who are going to be further disadvantaged.”

Promotion of the centres has been poor too, the administrator adds, with tutors having to promote and advertise their classes themselves. The Linked into Learning information on the internet points to old information about the service being closed at a previous premises in the town when in fact it’s being running successfully at the Wesley.

“The project is seen as a community outreach project for the Church, so rent is very low, and we have been told we’re the cheapest centre in Cornwall,” adds Jo who also deals with the administration for the students, and supports them alongside the tutor.

“Some of the students have decided not to sit their exams as they feel they are not ready. Many of them will not be able to continue with their courses. I think the students feel very let down.”

Initial talk of closing the centre by December 18 meant students sitting their exams before Christmas. Now that deadline has been pushed back to February but it’s still too early for adult learner Heidi Todd, from Saltash, who says they just haven’t covered the coursework needed.

She feels like she’s being set up to fail. “I don’t want to do the exam because I’m definitely going to fail it. And I’m going to panic because I’m going to come across a question and I have no idea what it is,” she said. With a fear of travelling and being a single Mum she doesn’t have time to drop her child and still attend classes in Liskeard, and some weeks would struggle to find the money for the bus fare.

The Saltash centre currently has 12 learners for their three courses of English and Maths but a long waiting list for ESOL - the English qualification for speakers of other languages. The town hosts Ukrainians relocated from Redruth who need to continue their English studies but can’t with the closure.

Jenny Hughes has been a tutor of adult education courses for 24 years and was an adult learner herself before going to university at 40. She said she wouldn’t have done any of that without adult education. Her job teaching at Saltash and Torpoint is being made redundant and she is hoping for redeployment.

She says that the beauty of classes had always been their ability to offer additional help as the class sizes were so small. “Many of the learners have ADHD, or Dyslexia. They need to have that additional support. The one thing we’ve always been good at is that one to one individual learning.”

She says that she understands the council’s predicament, and admits there is an issue with funding but more could have been done for current learners.

“Funding per pupil has not changed in the last 12 years despite wages etc having to keep pace with inflation,” she said. In 2019/20 they used to get £724 to fund an 18-week course, now that’s 22 weeks, and the IT course is half that amount for a 20-week course, which is impossible she says, and so it has to be squeezed into just 18 weeks.

She points out the time when they were waiting to move into a new location at Torpoint. The tutors were kept on full pay for months while the lease for the centre sat on a lawyer’s desk in County Hall. She was doing what she could for the learners out of Torpoint library until the centre was opened in February this year, which is now to close just one year later.

“We needed £30,000 to run that centre and already had £15,000. We still had 7 months to find the rest. That would all have been doable. The centre being closed in Penzance is even paying rent to Cornwall Council.”

Jenny who is also a community volunteer and Scout leader in Torpoint, said: “I don’t want to leave but the issue is funding. I get that, but they’re just not thinking outside of the box. Get rid of the centres and let us teach. I’ve taught IT with a suitcase of laptops before, travelling around on a bus. The service just needs better promotion.”