A Cornish MP has branded Cornwall Council as “simply pathetic” after a row blew up over grants being provided to help businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The council has been responsible for the distribution of grants to businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to help them cope with the loss of income in lockdown.

Hundreds of millions of pounds have been paid out to thousands of businesses but some missed out on initial funding because they did not fit criteria set by the government.

As a result the government provided an additional £13.5million to the council for use as discretionary grants to those firms which had fallen through the gaps of previous schemes.

But Cornwall Council has said that the money is not enough and called on the government to provide more cash for those businesses that need it.

However Steve Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay, hit out at the council and criticised its handling of the discretionary grants.

He said: “This is simply pathetic.

“Cornwall Council constantly say they want more devolved powers from central government but as we have seen here, when we give them even the slightest bit of discretion, they seem unable to make decisions for themselves, choosing to blame the government instead.

“MPs in Cornwall worked hard to secure more than £13million from the Government for a discretionary grants fund for the Council to tailor for Cornwall. The government issued guidance but was very clear that council should use their discretion to apply the funds to meet the particular needs of businesses in their area. What Cornwall Council has done is hide behind the guidance set out by the government both in terms of the businesses eligible for a grant but also crucially the amount of grant awarded.

“This has led to many, many businesses across Cornwall in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector completely missing out.

“Cornwall Council has received £444million from the Government during this crisis – more than virtually any other Council in the country. This is on top of the tens of thousands of people across Cornwall who have been paid by the government through the furlough or self-employed schemes. As well as the huge further measures announced by the Chancellor this week to further support the tourism and hospitality sector.

“Yet all we hear from the Council is that they want more.

“We knew that the available funds would be limited and that is why I and other MPs urged them to make sure the funds were available to those businesses most impacted by the lockdown and also to make smaller grants available so that we could help many more businesses. I know several businesses that contacted me said a grant of £5,000 would have been a huge help at this time. But the Council refused to listen and instead have decided to play politics and blame the government.”

His comments were in response to a statement issued by the council which called on the government to make a change to ensure more money could be paid to those businesses that need it.

The council said there was a shortfall of around £27m and that 3,500 businesses could miss out.

Tim Dwelly, council Cabinet member for economy and planning, said: “The number of applications for the discretionary fund and expressions of interest we’ve received is overwhelming evidence of the level of need across Cornwall. 

 “These are otherwise healthy and thriving small and micro businesses which make a valuable contribution to the Cornish economy and they should not face the prospect of bankruptcy or closure just because they fall through the gaps of funding criteria. 

 “Working with business leaders we have once again contacted our MPs and Government to make the case for more funding for the discretionary business support scheme so that we can offer financial support to Cornwall’s small and micro businesses who have already suffered greatly during this crisis.

 “One potential solution is for the government to allow the council to use the money that has not been claimed from the funds it allocated to Cornwall for the original small business emergency grant scheme.  We  contacted around 24,000 qualifying businesses using our business rates database to allocate around £244m, however around £37m allocated by the Government for that scheme remains unclaimed and is unlikely to be.

 “At present we can only use that money for grants to businesses which meet the original criteria as set out by the government, but if the government will allow us to use that remaining money to fund the discretionary business support grants, we could offer financial aid to all those who so badly need it.”