Kevin: A man with a plan

Andrew George, Kevin Lavery, Bert Biscoe, Mike German and Dick Cole at Saturday's Convention meeting.

When the £200,000-a-year chief executive of a powerful unitary council tells you Cornwall should be able to set its own trunk road speed limits for motorists, you know that either (a) the world has gone mad or (b) it's time to start taking the Cornwall Constitutional Convention more seriously.

Actually both of the above could be true but there were times during Kevin Lavery's address to the 10th annual meeting of the Convention when I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Inside County Hall it is tantamount to heresy to suggest that Kevin might not be a genius. There is a genuine and widely-held belief that he is the best, and certainly the cleverest local council clerk that Cornwall has ever seen (he is definitely the best paid.)

After Saturday's Convention meeting I walked away thinking Kevin must be some sort of magician. How else to explain his declaration that the deep cuts in public spending present an "opportunity" - indeed, Kevin wonders if Cornwall Council might not cut even more deeply than the 25% demanded by George Osborne, pocket the difference and use the proceeds to invest in its own major infrastructure projects.

There is no doubt that the creation of a powerful unitary council for Cornwall, to replace the old district councils, was a major game-changer. Here are a few of Kevin's comments from today's Convention meeting:

"We need to be optimistic. We have a 12-18-month window of opportunity. We have to seek opportunities and go for them. We have to take control and show leadership. We must stop looking to London and Brussels to solve our problems - only you, only people in Cornwall, can solve our problems. The unitary council can be Cornwall's salvation."

Kevin then gave as an example how development opportunities in the Camborne-Redruth area were, to some extent, limited by road capacity on the A30. Traffic flows, he said, are a function of "national" standards such as speed limits.

"Why not have our own standards?" he asked. "Why not set our own speed limits? These things are possible. They are possible in other countries and they could be possible in Cornwall."

So you change the speed limits, increase road capacity and exploit the planning gain. Simples. As long as the traffic cops don't have too many problems with enforcement...

Kevin said he would like the council to become a strategic body that looks to become a region in its own right. "We are not going to have another opportunity for maybe 20 years," he said.

No wonder Convention chairman, Cornwall councillor Bert Biscoe, was happy to declare "he's the best. Worth every penny!"

Earlier there had been a fleeting, virtual appearance from council leader Alec Robertson. A DVD projector displayed Alec as a "talking head" on the chamber wall. He was brief and to the point: "If we get the chance for greater devolution, we should grab it."

The context for this is the forthcoming "Localism Bill" which is expected to outline government plans for devolution.

The Truro and Falmouth Conservative MP Sarah Newton had to pull out of attending due to illness, but her coalition partner, St Ives Liberal Democrat, Andrew George, did adorn the platform.

I had wondered if the two MPs, who at Westminster are voting in favour of the deep public spending cuts in Cornwall, had been happy to take part in the Convention as a convenient way of wrapping themselves in Cornish tartan to deflect some of the flak. Too cynical?

Andrew gave a straightforward account of the government's position: "Regionalism is dead," he declared, listing the mangled corpses of the Regional Spatial Strategy, the Regional Development Agency, the Strategic Health Authority, Primary Care Trusts, Government Office of the South West etc etc.

Andrew said it was "less clear" what was going to replace these organisations, but thought that ministers seemed receptive to the idea of a Cornwall-alone Local Enterprise Partnership.

Apart from the LEP, I wonder if the government has any plans to replace anything. In the "good old days" things in Cornwall were run on a nod-and-a-wink by a rural squirearchy and the bonfire of controls and standards we are currently witnessing seems as good a way as any to revive it.

Mebyon Kernow's Dick Cole, a co-founder of the Convention 10 years ago, had been miffed at being left off the original speakers' list but Sarah's illness left a space on the top table, so Dick's contribution was duly heard.

The speaker sessions (yes, it ended up being five middle-aged, middle class blokes) ended with former Welsh Assembly deputy leader Mike German extolling the advantages of devolved government.

I think BBC Radio Cornwall's breakfast programme on Monday plans to broadcast coverage of the Convention and the full three hours will be on Cornwall Council's website from Tuesday or Wednesday.