Cornwall councillors say more needs to be done to ensure businesses and workers are prepared ahead of Brexit.

A presentation made to councillors on Friday about work the council has been doing in preparation for Brexit gave new information about what the impact on Cornwall could be when the UK leaves the EU.

Councillors said they were surprised by the scale of exports which go to the EU and raised concerns about whether enough people were aware of the EU settlement scheme.

The briefing highlighted that 55% of all exports from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly go to the EU and that figures from 2016 show that Cornwall exported £298m worth of trade to the EU compared to £271m of imports.

This gave Cornwall a 4.8% surplus, compared to the UK as a whole where there was a 24.4% deficit between exports and imports from the EU.

There was also information provided for which sectors in Cornwall could be most at risk due to the level of exports made to the EU.

In miscellaneous manufactured articles 25% of turnover is made up of EU exports; in crude materials, inedible, except fuels it is 23%; the machinery and transport equipment sector has 17% of all turnover from the EU; for chemicals and related products it is 10%.

In the food and live animals sector 7% of turnover comes from EU exports, with 60% of that coming from fish exports.

A survey of businesses around employees from the European Economic Area (EEA) found that 41% stay in a role between two and five years.

Councillors raised the issue of seasonal workers and the number of EU migrants who work in the agriculture industry in Cornwall.

David Biggs said Cornwall was “very heavily dependant” on workers in the industry.

He said: “They form 80 to 90 per cent of the workforce on some farms. They seem to be the hardest to reach.”

Cllr Biggs asked what was being done to help those workers to access the EU settlement scheme which provides help for those who have been based in the UK for more than five years and will enable them to stay after Brexit.

Carl Warom, who has been working on the Brexit preparations for the council, said the EU settlement scheme was only just starting to be rolled out now and would be fully operational by March.

He said the council would take the comments into consideration when providing information to people affected.

Mr Warom said there would be specialist help available for vulnerable people who might need support in making an application through the scheme.

Cllr Biggs said: “In Cornwall we are so dependant on these workers I think it is something we should be pressing on with.”

John Fitter asked if there were any “fairly accurate” statistics about the number of EU migrant workers in Cornwall.

But he was told that, because EU migrants had come to Cornwall under freedom of movement, there was no such information and this had proved a challenge to researchers when trying to understand what the impact could be.

Cllr Fitter said there could be implications for the construction industry and, with Cornwall Council currently leading an investment programme which was linking up with that industry, it could be a risk.

Councillors were told the council was working with a number of groups and organisations to manage risk which is posed by Brexit and whether there is a deal or no deal scenario.

In assessing the potential risk officers have highlighted that a no deal could lead to “short term disruption in the 0 to 6 weeks folllowing exit, which impacts upon people in Cornwall and requires the council to act, such as any immediate port and transport disruption, particularly given the coincidence with Easter tourism traffic, and any consequent supply chain disruption for critical goods”.

Council leader Adam Paynter said it was also important for councillors to lobby MPs to ensure Cornwall gets funding from the shared prosperity fund which the Government is establishing post Brexit.

He said a number of Cornwall’s MPs had made comments in the past stating that Cornwall would continue to get funding post Brexit to make up for the loss of funding that is currently provided through the EU.

He said: “We need to make sure that these funds will be available for us.”

Cllr Paynter suggested that one Cornwall MP had recently been “rowing back” on the commitment and suggesting that it was not guaranteed that Cornwall would get money from the fund.