Cornwall Council Leaders visit islands
The Leader of Cornwall Council was on the islands yesterday to meet with elected Members from Scilly.
Liberal Democrat Adam Paynter and Deputy Leader Julian German, an Independent, had been asked to visit by the islands’ Chair and Vice-Chair to discuss issues affecting both areas.
Councillor Paynter said: “We were really pleased to come over and discuss lots of things like housing and transport and the other areas that you have issues with very much the same as Cornwall.
"There's a lot of commonality there. A lot of your problems are magnified, but certainly things like social care and health, we share those sort of issues, so we're keen to help out as much as we can with the Isles of Scilly. We've had very good relationships certainly in my time over the last few years between the two Councils.”
He added that he hopes the problems that have occurred since the Inter-Authority agreement began are on the way to being resolved.
Islanders have experienced issues with Council tax and water rate payments since Scilly transferred its finance and IT functions to Cornwall Council. There have also been a number of problems within the Authority, particularly with email.
Cllr Paynter said: "I hope [the issues are on their way to being resolved]. Several of our officers are working with your officers and running some of the services here and we're very keen to make sure we get those right.
"With some of those higher level jobs with particular expertise that are difficult to sustain on the islands, we're happy to supply that expertise to make it cheaper for you and hopefully to give you good quality service from Cornwall Council."