When will Mayor for Cornwall and Deal consultation result be published

The public consultation closed on February 17 but Cornwall Council says it will not publish the results until March 15.

There have been claims that the results of the questionnaire, which was available both online and in paper form, have been shared with the council’s Cabinet and management team.

However the council said that it would not publish them until the agenda for the next Cabinet meeting, on March 22, is published the week before.

The new Cornwall Devolution Deal has been negotiated by Cornwall Council with the Government and seeks to devolve some responsibilities to Cornwall, as well as provide around £390million in additional funding. However, the deal can only be secured if Cornwall Council changes its governance structure and has a directly elected Mayor for Cornwall.

It has proved divisive, with supporters arguing that it will give Cornwall more control and additional money, whilst critics have said that it is not “real devolution” and that the funding is spread over 30 years and is limited by what it can be spent on.

The issue of a mayor has also split people, with some claiming that it will allow Cornwall to attract more investment but others are concerned that it would place too much power and responsibility onto one politician and would cost taxpayers more money.

There have also been calls for a referendum to be held about the issue of a Mayor for Cornwall and whether to accept the devolution deal. However, some have claimed that this would be too costly – a motion is set to go before the next full Cornwall Council meeting seeking a referendum.

The ten-week consultation carried out by Cornwall Council, which included online discussions, a series of Q&A events across Cornwall and the questionnaire, was designed to get residents’ views on the devolution deal and the mayor. Labour Parliamentary candidate Perran Moon said that the council should publish the results as soon as they are available and there was no reason to delay.

He said: “It’s extremely common in such consultations for preliminary results to be published, before a full detailed report. Given the public interest in this issue right across Cornwall, it seems odd to me that the Conservative-run Cornwall Council wants to delay publishing any results, until a full report is made later next month.

“The people of Cornwall have been asked for their views in a consultation and have given them. A delay of several weeks, while a full-blown report is published, is concerning.”

The front cover of the Cornwall Devolution Deal consultation booklet which has been produced by Cornwall Council (Image: LDRS/Richard Whitehouse)

In a statement Cornwall Council said: “The consultation report will be published alongside the agenda for the Cabinet meeting on March 22, which is consistent with the consultation plan that was approved as part of the Leader’s ‘minded-to accept’ decision on December 2.  This means the consultation report is likely to be available from March 15 on the council’s website.

“The consultation closed at midnight on Friday, February 17 2023. The data from all of the responses to the consultation questionnaire and all other responses we received from residents by email, post or phone during the ten-week consultation process is currently being analysed by the Consultation Institute, a well-established, not-for-profit best practice Institute, promoting high-quality public and stakeholder consultation in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

“Throughout the consultation process we have worked with the Consultation Institute to provide quality assurance and ensure our consultation is undertaken in line with industry and local Government good practice.

"The Consultation Institute’s quality assurance team will scrutinise the consultation report to verify the report provides a true and balanced representation of all the feedback received, including through the representative survey of 1,100 residents.”