Go-ahead granted for Cornwall Wave Hub

Today is a red letter day for Cornwall because the Government is announcing the go-ahead for a ground breaking development - the construction of a 'Wave Hub' off the coast of Cornwall. This 'Wave Hub' to be built on the seabed some 10 miles from Hayle will effectively be a giant electrical socket connected by undersea cable to a substation on the mainland. There are a number of companies in the throes of developing various types of technology using wave power to generate electricity and the hub will permit them to connect into the mains as it were. At the time of writing four firms have already been selected to have their devices connected to the hub which it is anticipated will be operational in a couple of years.

Cornwall is right at the cutting edge of this technology as the hub will be a world first. It is also the opportunity for the wave generation firms to see just how well their designs perform. And then of course there is the huge potential benefit for the economy of Cornwall.

Of course Cornwall has always been in the forefront of the green energy revolution: we had the first commercial wind farm at Delabole (although I still have doubts about wind energy) and there was also the innovative 'hot rocks' project that I think never properly came to fruition because of lack of money. But wave energy is something else; I can really see massive potential here.

Cornwall and Exeter to be unitary authorities

Unsurprisingly the weather which led to such severe flooding in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire has been THE story of the past week but of course other events have been happening in the meantime. One such was the decision by the government to provisionally grant unitary status to Cornwall and to Exeter. Caradon and some of the other district councils in Cornwall had canvassed people's opinions as to the rightness of this proposal; I have to say I voted to retain the status quo.

Lets put aside my normal aversion to change for the moment. From an atlas it can be seen that Cornwall is much longer than it is wide. Geographically we are a long distance from Truro which is where the county council operate from. I am quite concerned that decision makers particularly in such matters as planning are going to be so far away.

Pause here while I check the road distance to Truro. It's just over 50 miles which is a fair distance. I'm just not comfortable with the decision making being that far away. Taking away one layer of bureaucracy should reduce council tax I must admit. But I'm always sceptical about the assumed value of such savings.

As to Exeter going it alone it's understandable that Devon County Council aren't too happy as the county will become proportionately more rural (I think it might leave Exmouth as its largest town). It would be interesting to know whether the County Council would retain County Hall which of course is in Exeter itself. Such a retention might not set a precedent because - and this is second hand information - Kingston upon Thames is still the seat of power for Surrey even though the town is now part of Greater London. I would have guessed it was Guildford rather than Kingston but what do I know!