Keeping control of airport and 19 car parks is right move

T was a measure of the chaos which characterised the dying days of the previous Conservative regime at Lys Kernow that, challenged to come up with bright ideas to save public money and win back the hearts and minds of disaffected voters in the hope of saving its bacon at May’s elections, the best it could do was to propose selling off Newquay airport and disposing of 19 car parks. Reversing these decisions was an easy choice for the new council.

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Granted, the airport does require a subsidy of several million pounds a year from the public purse - a lot of airports do - but its activities bring in many times that amount to the county's economy every year. While those in the Tory administration eagerly talked up their planned deal to hand over much of the airport estate to an American finance company, claiming it would be good for Cornwall, it never seemed to occur to them to wonder why the Yanks were so keen to get their hands on it, and what the consequences might be for Cornwall (beyond the estimated £1m cost of consultants to advise on the plan); American finance companies are not generally notable for their philanthropy, and the obvious exp