Newspaper column 19 November 2020 - Good news for cyclists, walkers, homelessness reduction and RCHT

As we move towards the third week under the new restrictions, I wanted to reflect back on two recent announcements from last week for additional funding for Cornwall in areas where we have been able to innovate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Firstly I have been pleased to see Cornwall Council allocated £5.5million in funding from the Government to help protect some of the most vulnerable people in our communities from COVID-19 as well as help provide permanent solutions to end street homelessness.

In recent years Cornwall has bucked the national trend and significantly reduced the numbers of people sleeping rough in our county. Funding provided earlier in the pandemic led to virtually all of the rough sleepers in Cornwall being given a place to stay, and I want to see this continue.

I raised this in Parliament last week with the Housing Minister, highlighting some excellent work has been done in Cornwall to combat this issue by St Petrocs and by Cornwall Council, particularly with the success of the recent Pydar Pop-up project in Truro.

I was pleased that the Minister agreed with me that it is so important to tackle the long-term causes of street homelessness and provide, suitable, permanent education for these particularly vulnerable people. Last week I also wrote to the Leader of Cornwall Council and asked how the council on working with stakeholders to develop plans to spending this new government funding money effectively. The pop-up project at Pydar is an excellent first step and I hope projects like this will be expanded to help people off streets in the long term through this pandemic and beyond.

During the restrictions this year we have also seen a lot more people taking advantage of walking and cycling routes around Cornwall.  The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus just how important our daily exercise is. In Cornwall we are blessed to have such an amazing variety of places to walk and cycle to on our doorsteps, but it is crucial that we have the right dedicated cycling and walking infrastructure to allow people to get from place to place safely.

Last week the Government confirmed it will be providing another £607,000, under tranche two of the £175 million Active Travel Fund, to support walking and cycling in Cornwall, this will be really helpful in bringing forward further work on existing cycling and walking routes around the county.  I am pleased to support the Saints Trail plans between Perranporth and Newquay and would be delighted to see similar plans come forward for a dedicated cycle route between Truro and Falmouth. I look forward to working with Cornwall Council to see it is used appropriately.

Finally, I was pleased to see the new resuscitation unit at RCH Treliske opening to patients last week. This is the first phase of a £4.9 million development of the Emergency Department at Trelsike. A new MRI and oncology unit is also being built and the plans for the new women and children hospital are also well underway. My continued thanks to everyone at Treliske for the amazing work they are doing at this difficult time.

I hope everyone will continue to follow the latest rules and stay safe as we fight the virus. If you need my assistance with anything then my team and I are here to help. Please get in touch with me by email at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk or by telephone on 01872 229698.