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The speaker attended
the virtually and put the following question to the
Committee:
It is a matter of
public record that Cornwall Council has been pursuing its quest for
a strategic partner to invest in Newquay Airport for at least four
years.  Why was the leader’s decision, timetabled for
29th August and signed on 5th September,
subjected to the “urgency procedure?”
 
Response by the
Chairman
 
The current administration has
been in place since 2021 and has not been pursuing a strategic
partner to invest in Cornwall Airport Newquay until recently.
Previous to this the Council has been pursuing a strategy of
attracting individual businesses to locate at both the Aerohub Business Park and airside within the land
managed by Cornwall Airport Newquay. Whilst this long term strategy has seen some successes, it has
not seen the Airport estate developed to its full potential or
reduced the £3m airport subsidy that taxpayers are asked to
meet every year. The approach the Council is investigating now is a
new approach to solving this long term
challenge.
 
 
That is why last month, on the
advice of the project board, The Leader agreed to use the urgency
procedure decision to start the work to identify potential
investment partners for the airport to work with the Council to
keep open this vital facility and better attract growth, jobs and
businesses to be located at the airport. The advice was that to
proceed with issuing a prospectus to test levels of investor
appetite to inform our future budget and business planning
assumptions should be taken as a key decision and that market
conditions are such that this should be undertaken now.  As
the Leader stated at a recent full council meeting, the Council
remains committed to ensuring that the decisions that this Council
makes are done as openly and transparently as possible, whilst
ensuring that through any commercial negotiations, the council
achieves best value for the local tax
payer.
 
The speaker put a
supplementary question as follows:
On 7th July
this year – three months ago – Cornwall Council’s
audit committee called for an investigation and report on multiple
safety issues at Newquay airport and spaceport.  The council’s Monitoring Officer said this
report would come before this scrutiny committee.  When will that happen
and do you think public safety is urgent?
 
The Chairman advised a
response would be forwarded to the speaker in writing and
circulated to the Committee for information.