Cornwall's richest village benefits from £600k levelling up grant

There's been some consternation that one of the most expensive areas of not just Cornwall but the whole of Britain has received a Levelling Up grant, a scheme which was set up to help the poorest areas of the country. The neighbouring villages of St Minver and Rock - the latter a favoured playground of the rich and Royals - have benefited from a £600,000 taxpayer-funded grant from Cornwall Council.

As part of the Government's Levelling Up programme and to replace European funding, Westminster provided Cornwall Council with a £137 million Shared Prosperity Fund to hand out to community organisations. As part of that, St Minver Community Hub has been awarded £600,000 for a new building to replace a group of huts and temporary structures for the local Scouts, Guides, football club and health centre. The group had already raised another £300,000 from donations to begin construction work.

The Daily Mail has reported that some locals are astonished at the windfall, which will benefit residents of Rock where house prices reach £1.2m and is the third most expensive village in the UK for property. Homeowners include chef Gordon Ramsay, who has a £5 million mansion overlooking the sea, Fifty Shades Of Grey author E L James, who has a £2 million clifftop home, and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, who paid £2 million for a holiday home in a nearby village. Princes William and Harry have previously holidayed in the area.

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Margaret Marshall, 86, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years, told the national newspaper: "Do we really need it? I understand why local people think other areas of Cornwall are in greater need of levelling-up." Another resident Patricia Core said: "We have to go to Wadebridge for a doctors' surgery, the hub is providing a nurse station to deal with minor nurse problems but only twice a week, so the money could have been spent on replacing our surgery and our young families need council housing they can afford."

One woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she was "absolutely gobsmacked" at the grant, while another described it as a "vanity project", according to the Mail. However, others such as Maureen Dodd, 87, defended the project, saying: "It will be great for children and they're including a cafe where older people can meet. We're not all millionaires here. We're just ordinary people who have worked for a living."

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A spokesperson for Cornwall Council told us that St Minver and St Endellion ward is ranked 14,501 out of 32,844 wards in England, where one is the most deprived, as identified by the national Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) which measures deprivation across small geographical areas or neighbourhoods. "So it is in the bottom half of the list of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England. The perception of the area from the outside is of luxury seaside houses, but people fail to see the deprivation a few metres away.

"There is a divide between the very wealthy and those living in deprivation in the same community. The image is of residents being people at the wealthier end of the scale but this masks the presence of others on very low wages - 18.9 per cent of children under 16 are living in families with low income."

The spokesperson explained that the funded scheme will replace two outdated timber huts and existing changing facilities and a temporary cabin supplying local medical services following relocation of the surgery.

"The facilities are no longer fit for purpose (no disabled access, rot and no insulation) and prevent these clubs and organisations from providing a full range of activities and services and taking on new members. Investment will secure the future of several community groups and organisations as well as the health hub but also provide a modern, fully accessible, energy efficient, space that will be at the heart of the community.

"It will deliver a wide range of much-needed facilities and activities targeted at those most in need in the community stimulating community cohesion and supporting activities for all age groups. Investment will enable skills and training workshops and events from Cornwall’s colleges, health and wellbeing activities from social prescribing and employment support services."

As the accountable body for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall Council ensures that decisions on which projects receive funding are made in line with the Good Growth Investment Plan.