I promised on election night that I would keep doing everything in my power as a Cornwall Councillor to tackle the issues facing Cornwall, and that I would hold our new Labour MP to account for the promises she has made.

Last Wednesday I rejoined Cornwall Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, filling the seat vacated by Andrew George after his election as the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for St Ives.

I was the vice chair of this committee from 2017-2021 and I spotted an attempt to “move the goalposts” in the latest NHS “Integrated Performance Report”: For example, Category 2 Ambulance response times (eg for a stroke or heart attack) which had been over 100 minutes last year are now down to 39 minutes, which looks pretty good against an “interim target” of 30 minutes. But I pointed out that the true target (which was not mentioned in the report) is actually 18 minutes, so there is still a very long way to go. I have asked for all future reports to give a true picture of the state of our health service by showing the “interim targets” and the original NHS targets.

I was also delighted to see that NHS Cornwall has now agreed to implement the changes to the NHS Dental Contract which I have been lobbying for. NHS Dentists in Cornwall can now take up to 20% of their contract value on a “day rate” rather than being based on “Units of Dental Activity”. This will enable them to treat patients with complex problems without facing financial penalties for missing their activity targets. Along with an agreement to increase the rate paid for each “UDA” to £35, this should turn the tide of dentists leaving the NHS and may even attract others to rejoin it. But more Government funding will still be required to meet the demand for NHS dentistry in Cornwall.

I was pleased to see that our new Labour MP kept her promise to contact the Transport Secretary to ask for a meeting to discuss the Tamar Tolls. But some of the language in the letter worries me. Rather than asking for extra funding to abolish or even reduce the tolls, Anna Gelderd says her proposals “do not require funding from the Department for Transport and can be delivered within the existing toll spending envelope”. Translation: Any reductions in tolls for “locals” would be funded by putting up the prices even higher for everyone else. But who counts as “local”?

She goes on to say that the process for increasing tolls should be “streamlined” and made more “responsive and efficient”, which sounds to me like allowing the Councils to increase the tolls every year!

Thankfully there are now eight Liberal Democrat MPs across Cornwall and Devon who support fully-funding the Tamar Crossings so that the tolls can be abolished altogether for everyone.

Colin Martin

Liberal Democrat Cornwall councillor for Losthwithiel

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