Letter to the Editor of the Cornish Guardian from Roger Creagh-Osborne

Congratulations to Kevin Lavery on seeing the light over Newquay Airport

Dear Sir

Could I offer my congratulations to the Chief Executive of Cornwall Council, Kevin Lavery on his recent 'Road to Damascus' moment with regard to the prospects for Newquay Airport.  To remind readers, he said in a briefing "The original business plan was over-confident. The airport will always remain a small regional facility and on its own will probably never make a profit."

Quite a climb down from the hyperbole of the flawed draft masterplan published little over a year ago. As predicted by Bob Egerton and the Groundswell report on the airport at that time,  passenger numbers have declined by over 20% and there is no evidence of any net economic benefit to Cornwall; rather the reverse.

Hopefully Mr Lavery is now getting ready for the next step of his volte face and preparing to admit that the millions of pounds of our money that continues to be poured into the airport has been entirely wasted, and he will announce that council taxpayer support for the airport will now be withdrawn.

Roger Creagh-Osborne

Letter to the Editor of the West Briton from Ian Wright

Cornwall faces an Exodus of our young people unless something is done about unaffordable housing.

I totally support Kate Tregunna’s letter to the West Briton (House prices remain out of reach of average earners; WB 18/2/2010) House prices in Cornwall are nothing short of scandalous, and are totally unaffordable for many people living here, particularly the young and those who have to get by on the minimum wage.
Housing development in Cornwall must focus on the needs to the local population . Too many developments aim at people who already own their own homes, and/ or those moving down to Cornwall. Meanwhile too many local people have to pay high rents for substandard housing and /or cannot afford to get on to the housing ladder in the first place.

Press Release from West Cornwall Green Party
Monday 22nd February 2010

Justice is Theme of Green Conference

Tim Andrewes, the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for the St Ives constituency, attended the Party’s spring conference in north London last weekend, and has welcomed a raft of new policies that were agreed.

A strong theme running through the event concerned justice for ordinary citizens. New policies were agreed to curb excessive pay and bankers’ bonuses, to increase patient power within the NHS, and to defend civil liberties in the face of the growing power of the state.

Tim Andrewes commented: ‘One of the most inspiring sessions at the conference looked at how unequal our society has become. The gap between rich and poor has continued to widen under this government. This inequality is causing ill-health, increased crime, family and community breakdown.

‘Here in West Cornwall, the impact of inequality can be seen most starkly in the housing sector, where many people cannot afford to rent a home, while thousands of houses, owned by the wealthy, stand empty or underused for much of the year.

‘The Green Party has a number of policies to tackle inequality, including a fair system of taxation that would narrow the gap between rich and poor.’

The conference considered a number of other issues, including fisheries and marine conservation, creeping privatisation in the health service, and support for a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on international financial transactions.

Roger Creagh-Osborne for South-East Cornwall

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE CORNISH GREEN PARTY
19th February 2010 for immediate release

FOUR GREENS FOR CORNWALL

The Cornish Green Party announced today that Roger Creagh-Osborne would be standing as The Green Party candidate for South East Cornwall in the forthcoming General Election

Roger is well know locally for his campaigning on transport issues, especially through Rail User Groups,  and his involvement in bringing the Transition Town movement to SE Cornwall through Saltash Environmental Action. He has lived in the area since 1985 and his three daughters attended the excellent local schools and left to go to universities. He is a member of Landulph Parish Council since 2007, and currently works at the University of Plymouth.

Roger said: "I am deeply touched by the number of people who have told me that they are desperate for the Greens to stand so that they can cast a vote for a real alternative - I am persuaded by the strong feelings of people I have spoken with from all walks of life across SE Cornwall that we really must provide an opportunity for electors to vote for what they, and I, believe in.

Green Policy Supported By Fuel Poverty Expert

Euan McPhee, Green Party’s candidate for Camborne and Redruth, has welcomed the message delivered at a recent lecture on fuel poverty at the Tremough Campus. The lecture was given by Dr Brenda Boardman of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and a former government energy policy expert. She stated that 5 million UK homes are currently in fuel poverty, and are unable to afford to heat their homes effectively. This is leading to as many as 45,000 excess winter deaths per year.

“The Government has set itself the target of removing these 5 million households from fuel poverty by 2016,” says Euan. “So how will this be achieved? The Winter Fuel Supplement has been one way, but such a policy misses many of the really needy people. Also, just handing out more money for people to burn more fuel does not tackle the underlying problem of poor quality housing with low standards of energy performance.”