Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having taken over district-level functions when the county's districts were abolished. The non-metropolitan county of Cornwall is slightly smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Isles of Scilly. The council's headquarters is Lys Kernow (also known as New County Hall) in Truro.
The council has been under no overall control since July 2024. Following the May 2025 election an administration of the Liberal Democrats and independents formed to run the council.
History
Elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected
at the
quarter sessions. The first elections to the county council were held in January 1889 and it formally came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first formal meeting at the Municipal Buildings in
Truro. The first chairman of the council was William Edgcumbe, 4th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, a Conservative peer.
In 1974, Cornwall was reclassified as a non-metropolitan county under the Local Government Act 1972. The lower tier of local government was reorganised as part of the same reforms. Until 1974 the lower tier of local government comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and . In 1974 the lower tier of local government was reorganised and Cornwall was left with six districts: Caradon, Carrick, Kerrier, North Cornwall, Penwith, and Restormel.
On 1 April 2009, the six districts were abolished as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England and their functions were taken over by the county council, making it a unitary authority.
Devolution
The campaign for Cornish devolution began in 2000 with the founding of the Cornish Constitutional Convention, a cross-party, cross-sector association that campaigns for devolution to Cornwall.
In 2009 the Liberal Democrat MP
Dan Rogerson introduced a bill in parliament seeking to take power from Whitehall and regional
and pass it to Cornwall Council, with the intention of making the council an assembly similar to the National Assembly for Wales.
In November 2010 the Prime Minister,
David Cameron, suggested in comments to the local press that his government would "devolve a lot of power to Cornwall – that will go to the Cornish unitary authority."
In 2011, the then Deputy Prime Minister
Nick Clegg said he would meet a cross party group, including the six Cornish MPs, to look at whether more powers could be devolved to Cornwall.
Some powers were eventually devolved from the government to Cornwall Council in 2015, relating to matters including bus franchising, education and apprenticeships, renewable energy and energy efficiency and integration of health and social care services.
Governance
Since 2009, Cornwall Council has provided both county-level and district-level services. The whole county is also divided into
, which form a second tier of local government.
Political control
The council has been under no overall control since July 2024.
Following the 2025 election the council remained under no overall control.
Reform UK won the largest number of seats on the council at that election, but were unable to find any potential coalition partners willing to work with them. Instead a minority administration of the Liberal Democrats (the second-largest party, with 26 seats) and the independent councillors formed to run the council instead.
Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:[ (Put "Cornwall" in search box to see specific results.)]
Two tier non-metropolitan county council
|
|
| 1974–1985 |
| 1985–1993 |
| 1993–1997 |
| 1997–2005 |
| 2005–2009 |
Unitary authority
|
|
| 2009–2021 |
| 2021–2024 |
| 2024–present |
Leadership
The leaders of the council since 2005 have been:
|
| 4 Jun 2009 |
| 16 Oct 2012 |
| May 2013 |
| May 2017 |
| 21 May 2019 |
| May 2021 |
| May 2025 |
| |
Composition
Following the 2025 election, the composition of the council was:
|
|
| 28 |
| 26 |
| 7 |
| 4 |
| 3 |
| 3 |
| 16 |
! colspan="2" | Total:
!87 |
Elections
Since the last boundary changes in 2021 the county has been divided into 87 electoral divisions, each electing one
councillor. Elections are held every four years.
Premises
The council has its headquarters at
Lys Kernow, also known as New County Hall, on Treyew Road in Truro. It was purpose-built for the council and opened in 1966.
The quarter sessions which preceded the county council had generally met at the Shire Hall in Bodmin. From its first meeting in 1889 the county council chose instead to meet in Truro, where it initially met at the Municipal Buildings (later called City Hall, now the Hall for Cornwall). In 1912 the council moved to a new building at County Hall on Station Road in Truro, which served as the council's headquarters until 1966.
Cultural services and policies
Among the services provided by the council is a
public library service which consists of a main library in Truro and smaller libraries in towns and some villages throughout Cornwall. There are also the following special libraries: Cornwall Learning Library, Cornish Studies Library, the Education Library Service, and the Performing Arts Library, as well as a mobile library service based at
Threemilestone.
Cultural projects
Cornwall Council is promoting ten cultural projects as part of a five-year culture strategy. One project is the development of a National Theatre of Cornwall, a collaboration of the Hall for Cornwall,
Kneehigh Theatre,
Eden Project and
Wildworks. Cornwall Council has based its idea on the successful National Theatres of Scotland and Wales.
Another of the projects is the proposed creation of a National Library of Cornwall to resolve inadequacies with the current storage of archives.[Cornwall Council – Historic Cornwall Advisory Group – Bagas Kusulya Kernow Istorek – 29 June 2011] It is hoped that this will bring some important documents concerning Cornish history back to Cornwall as well as providing better public access to those records already held. Cornwall Council is also involved in the project to build a Stadium for Cornwall.
Cornish ethnic and national identity
Cornwall Council backs the campaign for the
Cornish people to be recognised as a National Minority in the UK. The council's then chief executive Kevin Lavery wrote a letter to the Government in 2010, writing, "Cornwall Council firmly believes that the UK Government should recognise the Cornish as a national minority under the terms of the Framework Convention." Adding that, "Cornwall Council believes that the Government's current restricted interpretation is discriminatory against the Cornish and contradicts the support it gives to Cornish culture and identity through its own departments."
Cornwall Council's support was officially reaffirmed as council policy in 2011 with the publication of the Cornish National Minority Report 2, signed and endorsed by the then leaders of every political grouping on the council.
The council took an active role in the promotion of the options for registering Cornish ethnicity and national identity on the 2011 UK Census.
The Cornish people were finally recognised as a National Minority by the British Government on 24 April 2014 and incorporated into the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities giving the Cornish the same status as the United Kingdom's other Celtic peoples, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.
Cornish nationhood
Since 2025, Cornwall Council has supported constituent country status for Cornwall, which would make it the UK's fifth constituent country alongside England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The council argues that Cornwall is culturally, ethnically and linguistically distinct from England, which Cornwall is currently a county of, and plans to discuss Cornwall's recognition as a distinct country of the UK with the UK Government.
International relations
Since 2008 Cornwall Council and the former county council, together with Cornwall Enterprise, and Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership, have been involved with a Protocol of Cooperation between Cornwall and the Conseil général du Finistère in
Brittany. The protocol aims to allow the two regions to work more closely on topics of common interest and engage in a knowledge exchange with the possibility of jointly applying for European funding.
Cornwall is also a member of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, a partnership of European regions, which aims to promote and highlight the value of these regions to Europe. Cornwall comes under the Atlantic Arc Commission sub-division of 30 regions, which has been used to advertise the potential of renewable energy off the Cornish coast to Europe.
A scheme arising from these partnerships is MERiFIC (Marine Energy in Far Peripheral and Island Communities) which seeks to advance the adoption of marine energy across the two regions, including the Isles of Scilly.
Cornwall County Council organised an event in Brussels in 2008 to promote various aspects of Cornwall, including the Cornish language, food and drink and showcasing Cornwall's design industry. This was part of the Celtic Connections programme of events put together by the Celtic nations as a showcase for culture in Europe.
Various fact finding missions have been organised by councillors to study how other regions and small nations of Europe govern themselves successfully. Independent councillor, Bert Biscoe, organised a fact finding mission to Guernsey in 2011 to see if the island's system of government could be adapted to work in Cornwall.
Since 2010 Cornwall Council has been a full observer member of the British–Irish Council due to the Cornish language falling under the BIC's areas of work.
Economic projects
Cornwall Council, in partnership with the
Eden Project, is bidding to have the world's first Green Investment Bank based in Cornwall. The council is also working with the NHS and Eden to tackle fuel poverty by creating a Cornwall Together co-op which will buy electricity at lower-than-market prices.
No further progress has been made on this since it was originally proposed.
Cornwall Council are servicing nearly 30 long term lender option borrower option loans (LOBOs) totalling £394 million. The council is locked into some of the deals until the year 2078, paying interest at more than double the current market rate.
Cornwall Youth Council
Historically, Cornwall Council operated Cornwall Youth Cabinet (), a
youth council of young people in Cornwall between the ages of 11 and 18.
In May 2022, the council launched a new youth council with Action for Children called Cornwall Youth Council ().
Cornwall Youth Council is a mostly elected youth council of young people aged 11 to 25 who live or study in Cornwall.
The youth council has 12 elected members who are elected by young people across Cornwall including the five members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) for Cornwall, as well as members from underrepresented communities who are co-opted to represent a community seat, for example people who are from the
LGBTQ community, have been
Adoption or have had
special needs or
Disability.
Elections to Cornwall Youth Council are held every two years, with members elected in pairs to represent one of the six parliamentary constituencies of Cornwall.
Notable members
-
Dick Cole, leader of Mebyon Kernow and member for St Dennis and St Enoder.
-
Loveday Jenkin, deputy leader of Mebyon Kernow and member for Crowan, Sithney and Wendron
See also
-
Council of the Isles of Scilly
-
Cornish Nationalism
External links
