Cornwall will benefit from new investment in three of its town centres, including Penzance, and natural landscapes announced the Prime Minister yesterday.
The Town Deals announced for Penzance, St Ives and Camborne are collectively worth over £65 million and will fund projects at the heart of communities in some of the Duchy’s most deprived areas.
The Penzance Town Deal is worth £21.5m and includes funding for the modernisation of Penzance Harbour, a new marine training facility at Newlyn Harbour, the development of a new public leisure facility and the renovation of Morrab Gardeners’ House, Penlee House & Coach House and Newlyn Art Gallery & the Exchange.
Other funding will go to sustain businesses and commercial sectors most badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic and to create new business hubs in the towns which will re-establish them as economic powerhouses and centres of innovation – creating long term, sustainable jobs.
To reverse the decline in biodiversity and restore Cornwall’s natural environment the Government, in partnership with Natural England and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, is launching a major land restoration and regeneration programme across 21,000 hectares of land. This nature recovery project involves planting trees, restoring peat, making improvements to water quality, recreating scarce habitats and reintroducing lost and declining species such as dormice and the marsh fritillary butterfly.
This restoration will provide a huge boost to Cornwall’s efforts to become the first net zero region in the UK. Reforestation and the restoration of wetlands through the project will take an estimated 440,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
To help Cornwall reach net zero faster the Government has also announced a package of measures to help individuals and companies take steps to reduce their carbon footprint. This includes:
- Up to £1 million of innovation funding earmarked for businesses in Cornwall to support their development of technologies, products and processes in energy efficiency, power generation and energy storage.
- Establishing Cornwall as a pilot area for a new e-bike support scheme – e-bikes are the only electric vehicles not to receive grants at present.
- Subject to full business case approval Cornwall will also receive up to £150k to design and build ‘Kernosat’, a small satellite which will be used to monitor the local environment, with the potential for it to be launched from a UK spaceport next year.
