Police and Crime Commissioner requests Special Grant funds to address tourism ‘summer surge’

All will be aware that local tax payers are being forced to underwrite and pay for the massed tourism which hits Kernow each year and even the Chief Constable, Shaun Sawyer has pointed out that it is simply not fair that local people should have to pay to provide extra policing (and other) services to the tens of thouands of holiday makers.

Now Police Commissioner Alison Hernandez has gone to Westminster with a delegation of councillors, MPs and police representatives from across the police force area to hand in a bid for extra funding.

Visitor numbers have boomed in recent years due to the popularity of our resorts and a low pound.

While it is said that tourists bring prosperity to Cornwall and islands that make up the force area, there is no direct revenue from this to fund police and other services, who feel the strain of the ‘summer surge’.

Officers and staff struggle to cope with an 11% rise in crime in the months between April and September, a 14% rise in incidents and an 18% increase in missing people.

Brave police officers have even been compelled to enter the sea and join colleagues from the other emergency services and pull out struggling tourists who fail to understand the dangers of tides or the risks of fallig from cliffs.

The bid details £17.9m of expenditure over three years that is linked to the ‘summer surge’ and requests compensation for this.

Tourism is far from Cornwall's largest money maker but it does make huge demands on local taxpayers and services and we are not alone in continuing our call for a 'tourist tax' as is common in many resorts overseas and soon to be introduced at some locations in the British Isles to offset the service demands and damage repair needed.