This week marks the fifth anniversary of the Cornish being recognised as a national minority.

To mark the occasion, Cornwall Council and its partners are calling on the government to go further in recognising the Cornish people as an official minority.

One of council's aims is to give Cornish people the right to identify themselves as Cornish in the 2021 census.

Jesse Foot, Cornwall Councillor for St Germans and Landulph, is the chair of the council-led Cornish Minority Working Group, which coordinates activity and proactively supports Cornish culture, language and heritage.

He said: “Whether you identify as Cornish by birth, marriage, ancestry or some other route you have the right to be recognised, for services to be planned, and for funding to be sought on this basis.

“We’ve been working hard with limited resources to raise awareness of the Cornish as a national minority. The UK government has to fulfil its responsibilities so that the Cornish are treated equally with the other Celtic nations.”

The Cornish Minority Working Group has supported tangible projects like Golden Tree’s touring ‘Cornish Embassy’ bus which proved to be incredibly popular as part of the Man Engine Resurrection Tour and last year’s Royal Cornwall Show.

Jesse added: “The enthusiasm of those who identify as Cornish saw hundreds of people flock to celebrate their identity with a Cornish passport as they loudly and proudly declared their Cornishness.

"An overwhelming 96 per cent of visitors passing through the bus over three days at the Royal Cornwall Show supported the inclusion of a tick box on the census, sending a clear message to the Office for National Statistics that there is strong support.”

Another project that has worked to raise Cornish cultural awareness in schools is run by Azook who reviewed what resources are available to and required by teachers to support the promotion of Cornish culture in schools.

Jesse said: “The council promoted the use of Cornish through its Cornish Language Plan, with an updated version due to be considered by cabinet at their next meeting.

"Because of the withdrawal of government funding to support the Cornish language, Cornwall Council has been funding low cost ways of promoting the language such as through the use of Cornish on street signs, on its offices and other council-owned buildings and in its publications.

"The previous plan has seen other positive results with, for example, Golden Tree working with 20 schools to regularly teach Cornish and develop a website – GoCornish.org - to promote learning Cornish.”