Funding bodies need educating (From Falmouth Packet)

Funding bodies need educating

10:08am Wednesday 24th June 2009

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IT seems that at a blink of the eye, or flick of the fingers, millions of pounds of funding from the taxpayer can be secured on behalf of Cornwall’s university.

Yet when it comes to seeking money to improve commercial facilities in Falmouth in order to boost the county’s economy, it falls on deaf ears.

I am referring, of course, to the £12 million of European Regional Development Fund money that has been awarded to University College Falmouth to go towards a £20 million scheme. There appears to be a never-ending supply of cash for our university.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the university and what it wants to do. It will, after all, bring more jobs and more students and therefore more money to the area. But over the past few years, millions of pounds have been granted to the seat of learning with little difficulty.

Yet when Falmouth docks and the Falmouth Harbour Commissioners say they wish to improve facilities that will benefit far more people and bring in much more money, they find themselves up against a brick wall immediately.

The South West RDA has already agreed to provide £3 million in match funding for the university scheme. University College Falmouth will hand out a further £2,104,333 and HEFCE £1,665, 000.

The very same RDA has refused to back development of a cruise liner terminal in Falmouth and other facilities in the port that will at least benefit local people rather than thousands of students, most of whom will not remain in Cornwall once their education is complete.

I will no doubt get some stick for that statement, but it’s all in a day’s work, so to speak.

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