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Who will run Cornwall's Local Enterprise Partnership?

Graham Smith | 09:16 UK time, Thursday, 29 July 2010

Even when Cornwall councillors vote unanimously on a subject, they usually find something to disagree about. Such was the case on Tuesday when the council voted unanimously to back a Cornwall (and Isles of Scilly?) Local Enterprise Partnership to replace the dying Regional Development Agency.

The council's Conservative leader Alec Robertson spoke in support of a body which would be "acceptable" to the business community. This drew an immediate response from the Liberal Democrat's Alex Folkes, who questioned why the business community should be in the driving seat - the LEPs, after all, will be spending taxpayers' cash.

For some at County Hall, the main issue is to get a LEP which allows Cornwall to run its own affairs, free from Devon. But whose Cornwall? If we're not careful, we could end up with important decisions about strategic infrastructure investments being taken by an unelected collection of small-town Chambers of Commerce.

The business community, as ever, is streets ahead of Cornwall Council and is organising meetings even as I write about the sort of relationship it wants to have with taxpayers' money. The council has a month to get its act together - the government's deadline for applications to set up LEPs is early September.

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