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Cornwall Council denies ditching beaches and parks to save millions is ‘fire sale’

Cornwall Council’s deputy leader has denied the devolution of 2,000 local authority-owned land is a “fire sale”. The council has agreed to sell or give away beaches, parks, car parks, green spaces, playgrounds, chapels and other properties in a bid to make millions of pounds in savings.

At a meeting of the council’s Conservative Cabinet today (Wednesday, May 8), deputy leader and head of resources Cllr David Harris denied the authority was “returning assets to any Tom, Dick or Harry at any price to make a quick buck. over a number of years, they will be looking at a whole range of assets that in some way, shape or form don’t really fit as council assets.”




He said up to £6.9m of new savings had been made by the cash-strapped council, which included the devolution of land assets, the list of which has not yet been publicly disclosed. The council ended the 2023/24 financial year on March 31 with an overspend of just over £3m against a net budget of £707.667m.

Read more: ‘No listing’ of 2,000 Cornish assets plans to offer

Read more: Neighbors plead to buy council land to ‘save it from holiday flats’

The net income budget for next year is now £770.857m, with a draw from council reserves of £11.4m.

Cllr Harris stressed that the savings made by shedding the 2,000 assets was not a “fire sale”. He added: “Ultimately these could be passed on to town or parish councils, community groups or transferred to one of our independent companies.

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