Cornwall case study

Question 1

Opportunities/benefits of living in Cornwall

Answer 1

• Superfast broadband (first UK area)
• Beach location
• Scenery
• Food and drink – Cornish pasties, wines and ice cream
• Sparse – biggest town =35,000 people
• Own language
• Seasonal job opportunities
• High quality housing
• Climate – More sun and warmer winters

Question 2

Challenges of living in cornwall

Answer 2

• Remote – Travel time is high
• Erosion – 2014 Railway line destruction at Dawlish (Devon) led to income loss for hotels
• No ability to commute to cities
• Climate – Frequent storms and high rainfall in winter
• Lack of social opportunities
• Limited services – Healthcare and shops limited – many village shops have had to shut
• Cost of transport – Car ownership high (due to remote location) but cost to visit rest of UK high for train/fuel costs
• Tourism – Poor reputation in some areas, such as Newquay, due to its beach location it is popular for Stag Weekends and brings with it a drinking culture.

Question 3

Cornwall’s health challenge:

Answer 3

• An ageing population and decline in younger pop = increased use of health care
• shorter life expectancy
• higher % of under 60s with anxiety disorders and claim health benefits
• only 38% of villages in West Cornwall have a doctors surgery, some of these only open 1 morning a week.

Question 4

Cornwall location - associations

Answer 4

• lands end - coastal erosion (granite features)
• eden project - education about sustainable living + brings tourism
• St Ives - Tourism, harbour, Tate gallery
• Newquay - surfer-campsites, music festivals.

Question 5

Cornwall’s industrial past

Answer 5

• Was highly economical with a diverse range of industries - china clay production, mining, quarrying, fishing, wool cloth production etc.
• impacted landscape - mining
• Cornwall used to employ 10,000 in the china clay industry - but by 2015 reduced to 800.
• last tin mine closed in 1986 - now used as a tourist industry

Question 6

Why Cornwall struggles:

Answer 6

• The Brain drain - uni graduates not returning due to lack of employment opportunities (Cornwall mainly offers only primary/seasonal low paid jobs.)
• seasonal jobs dominate (not enough all year round employment)
• no motorway, one airport, lack of transport links = high transport costs.
• pressure on health services
• limited range of services

Question 7

Why cornwall is socially deprived:

Answer 7

• lack of employment
• majority of all year round jobs in mining/quarrying gone (primary jobs) except fishing - this industry does bring £27.7mil to the country.
• Cornwall has the lowest full time average salary £25,000 due to brain drain (cornwall left with low skilled workers)

Question 8

Why Cornwall has has an influx of migrants:

Answer 8

• due to the lack of people who want to do primary jobs - immigrants fill these roles and do low skilled jobs for low wages such as planting crops.

Question 9

Cornwall’s ethnicity:

Answer 9

South west england is the least ethnically diverse area in the UK - 95% of pop is white british.

Question 10

National/local strategies for Rural areas:

Answer 10

1997 - 2007 = EU funded programme called Objective One - matched private investment to stop businesses failing in 1st year.

• Eden project - made £1.1 bill in its first 10 years - 7x the cost of build.
• Gov provided regional aid - via enterprise zones - incentives to attract companies e.g. super fast broadband, no planning permission needed etc.