Cornwall Council: 'Hard choices' ahead on services

Councillor David Harris told the council's Cabinet that the authority faced a £62m budget gap in 2023/24

Cornwall Council will have to make some "seriously hard choices" on services amid an "uncertain" financial future, said its deputy leader.

Councillor David Harris told the council's Cabinet that the authority faced a £62m budget gap in 2023/24.

Money set aside would not be enough to cover costs of inflation this year or next, he told the meeting on Tuesday.

Cabinet members backed a recommendation to cut the council's capital spending programme by £13.8m.

'Very confident'

"We will be looking at bigger projects where we can perhaps delay commencement," said Mr Harris.

He said he was "very confident" about the council's financial strategy as "the right one to help us manage in this uncertain future".

But the authority would have to make "some seriously hard choices about the service levels we provide".

Councillors also approved a suicide prevention strategy on reducing the suicide rate in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to the same as the national average or lower by 2027.

Cabinet also approved a new £6.4m programme funded by Department for Food and Rural Affairs to protect Cornwall's sand dunes.

Council leader Linda Taylor said the cost of living was "at the forefront of people's minds" and the council would be "doing all we can" to "sign-post all the help and support that is available".

She also welcomed government plans for Investment Zones and said she wanted Cornwall to "benefit from becoming one of these zones in the future".