"A Councillor's View" by Scott Mann: "I was saddened this week while watching the news to see many people looking desperate and frustrated. No, not an under developed country who take foreign aid, but the hard-working small business owners in Cornwall and Devon who have been hit so hard by the appalling weather.
Whilst I feel for the residents in the Somerset levels, Cornwall has taken a beating and must not now be overlooked. They feel desperate because they were watching their livelihoods being literally swept away by the storms. And frustrated because they feel there is nothing they can do. Well maybe so - and I sympathise with them whole heartedly.
There is definitely something the Government can do. Cornwall to a large degree depends on tourism: B&Bs, small cafes and restaurants, and of course the larger attractions like the Eden Project. Half term is approaching fast and many will be hoping to visit loved ones in Cornwall or leaving Cornwall to go up country. However, none of these businesses - large or small - can survive if the tourists cannot reach them. With the train route at Dawlish down it will mean the airport will pick up some traffic. It is now absolutely imperative that the Government now makes urgent and generous financial provision to secure the future of Newquay Airport with subsidies to the airlines (like they do for the Scottish Isles), and raise the priority of making the A30 a dual carriageway all the way through Cornwall, and finally - and most obviously - underpin both metaphorically and literally the rail network infrastructure.
Let us support our hard-working but desperate small business owners not with shallow words but with positive and meaningful assistance. Now."