While most of us pay every time we use a Council car park, a persistent minority of “freeloaders” simply choose not to pay, gambling that the cost of an occasional fine will be less in the long-run.

Most privately owned car parks now use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to identify every vehicle as it arrives and leaves, making it virtually impossible for anyone to escape without paying.

Last week Cornwall Councillors were told that if ANPR cameras were installed in our car parks, this would raise an extra £1-2 million per year for the maintenance of our roads. It would also mean that barriers (which tend to break down) would no longer be required.

Unfortunately, whilst the Government has allowed private companies to use ANPR for years, the law says Councils can't be trusted with this technology! So rather than getting on and installing ANPR cameras, Cornwall Council is now going through the convoluted process of handing dozens of its car parks over to a private company to install and operate ANPR cameras. What a palaver!

Another antisocial minority spoiling things for the law-abiding majority is in the holiday rental sector. Tourism plays an important role in Cornwall’s economy, but sites like Airbnb have led to uncontrolled growth which has serious consequences for our communities. As with car parking, there are rules that everyone is meant to follow, but the Council can’t check every individual.

In 2021, my “Housing Emergency” motion led to Cornwall Council supporting the Liberal Democrat policy for a “holiday rental registration scheme”. This would require every short-term rental owner to prove to the Council that they are following all the rules. Last year, the Conservative Government passed a law requiring councils to set up such a scheme. Even Airbnb came out in favour of it because they recognise that cutting down on rogue operators is the best way to improve their tarnished reputation.

But once again councils are being held back from putting this solution into action because the Government hasn't issued the instructions about how the registration schemes should operate.

I spoke to the Secretary of State Michael Gove about this last November, and this week I wrote to all six of Cornwall's new MPs to raise my concern about the delay.

Neither of the above changes require the Government to spend any money; they simply need to set councils free to solve their problems. If the new Labour Government would adopt the Liberal Democrat principle that decisions should be made as close as possible to the people they affect, then Cornwall (along with the rest of the country) would soon feel the benefit.

But for this to happen, we need all of Cornwall's new MPs (Labour and Liberal Democrat) to stand up and fight for change.