Do you think Cornwall will be 'open' in July?

[NoSoapAndGory]

Hi all.

A purely speculative post to gauge opinions, as I know we don't know, don't have a crystal ball, etc etc.

We have booked a self catering holiday cottage near Bude for the first 10 days of July. We live in the South East, so it's about 5 hours drive to get there on a good day. We have a dog so would need to stop at a service station at least once.

As part of general future-focused conversation, DH and I are ruminating about

1: will we be 'allowed' to go
2: if we are, would we want to anyway?
3: if it's 'allowed', will the Bude community welcome us or hate us?
4: will the tourist industry want revenue or not?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Anyone else having similar discussions, and if so, what are you thinking?

Community hospitals don't take acute admissions, only rehab step down patients. There are not 'lots of hospitals' here that can take sick people. Many that are listed as hospitals don't even have beds anymore, they are health and well being centre where intermediate care teams work from. There's also very little space to create extra beds in the 5 hospitals in Devon and Cornwall.

You really would be taking your chances coming here if you got sick.

The Keep Out mantra may still be going strong and ruining business at the same time.

Just posting this again:

www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/26/restaurants-stare-into-social-distancing-abyss

Local attitudes are going to have far less of an impact than social distancing rules.

Hi all,

Just an update to say that we've just had an email from the holiday company - they have amended their policy to allow you to decide / pay the full balance 3 weeks ahead of your arrival date instead of the normal 9 weeks .

This is a very helpful thing for them to do and we really appreciate it. We have paid £600 deposit and have another £1,200 to pay if we go.

We have actually decided we are extremely unlikely to go. 4th July is only 8/9 weeks away. I work in a city and don't plan to be going back into the city by then, so it doesn't make sense for us to drive nearly 300 miles to go Into the unknown - we had also booked a B&B In Taunton to break the journey which is unlikely to be available - and I don't think we would enjoy the unease.

We may lose our deposit but we'd rather do that than put ourselves and others at unnecessary risk.

@NoSoapAndGory sounds good. We have booked for August on a similar basis. We were due to spend Easter in Cornwall and luckily got a refund (with Aspects Holidays). And because Aspects treated us fairly in March they got our business again for the August booking.

I'm still hoping we can go

No idea if this helps, but I'm in Maine which I think of as the Cornwall of New England. Our very tentative date to start reopening lodgings to non-Maine residents is 1st July.

This is only if the prior states of reopening go OK. Also it's based on us having a very low case and death rate so far - 51 deaths for 1.3 million people.

1st June (again theoretical at this point) we'll reopen lodgings to Maine residents, restart things like summer camps, open shops and restaurants - all with social distancing in place. (I have no idea how they'll do social distancing at summer camp...)

I'm nervous about it - we get over 30 million visitors a year. But we really don't have many other industries and people's incomes depend on tourism.

@HoldMyLobster I live here in Cornwall and my dad is cornish, but my Mom is a Mainer...definitely the Cornwall of New England!

I understand the concerns of people in Cornwall (and other less affected areas).

I only hope vulnerable people everywhere are afforded the same protections this time round. It's unfair to the millions of vulnerable people in urban areas (without including younger people with underlying conditions, over a million pensioners live in London) to allow hundreds of thousands to fly into the airports daily whilst at the same time telling people to stay away from the seaside.

I blame Doc Martin & his mate Poldark.

The original Poldark? I blame those artists in Newlyn and St Ives.

According to the Telegraph, Cornwall might actually leave lockdown sooner than other parts of the country, but because the geography means visitors can be controlled, not to enable tourism.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/29/boris-johnson-dash-hopes-lockdown-will-lifted-soon/

"Mr Gove also said the Isle of Wight and Scottish islands could be used to pilot measures including a contact tracing mobile phone app and track and trace before they were introduced nationwide, raising the possibility these areas could be the first out of lockdown.

Whitehall sources said ministers were expected to discuss the possibility of Cornwall being the first area of the mainland to exit lockdown, as it is easy to control traffic flows in and out."

Not sure how I feel about Cornwall being used as a guinea pig for the safety measures larger counties will come to rely on.

Bit of a 'this could be a terrible idea, so lets try it out on the less important bits first....'

Well you have fewer roads but Cornish residents like the sense of being cut off and separate. Can’t have it both ways. Is the track and trace app up to it?

If the police patrol the roads and stop people then no one will want to visit anyway! They would not run the risk of being turned back so who would bother? Not me.

Is the track and trace app up to it?

I think that is the point - they want to set up the first pilot schemes in places that are geographically isolated like islands and peninsulas, I assume because they think the results will be clearer.

It's unfair to the millions of vulnerable people in urban areas...to allow hundreds of thousands to fly into the airports daily whilst at the same time telling people to stay away from the seaside

Well it would be if that were indeed happening. But it's not. I read just this morning in the Times that flight movements are down by 91% (and most of the flights operating will be carrying freight and bringing British nationals home).

Tourism is one thing, but people have family living in remote/tourist areas. For example, my husband's niece lives in Truro. I dare say his brother would like to see his daughter at some point. So is the idea that she will be allowed to visit him (in London) but he can't visit her?

Whichever minister has that idea forgets that south east Cornwall and Plymouth (via the Tamar bridge) are heavily interlinked communities. Controlling traffic flow would actually be nightmarish.

Like another poster said upthread. Cornwall isn’t a theme park. Only about 20% of our economy is tourism related. Believe it or not most people’s lives here are not dependent on tourism.

Of course 20% of an economy is not an insignificant amount. And it’s lovely that so many people love Cornwall so much that they are desperate to come here.

But please wait. And comments about how much ‘they hate the tourists’ may or may not be true. Some do. Some don’t. Having a massive influx of people into your community each year is very disruptive. The whole rhythm of the place is upended in July and August. Add COVID anxiety to that and yes it’s a bit toxic.

Well you have fewer roads but Cornish residents like the sense of being cut off and separate. Can’t have it both ways.

I think a lot of Cornish would love more roads, more dual carriageways etc. but there is no space to build them. The Hayle Bypass is not fit for purpose.

Well you have fewer roads but Cornish residents like the sense of being cut off and separate. Can’t have it both ways.

Actually what many of us would like is better connectivity. We’ve been campaigning for a sustainable rail service upcountry for years. And the death of Plymouth airport affected many too.

Because lots of us run or work in businesses that require us to travel. Our transport infrastructure isn’t all about tourists.

I bet plenty of peoples lives are dependent on buoyant tourism. It has long tentacles. It’s not just what you see it’s all the services that go on unseen. The agricultural industry says it is vital to them. What about builders? Maintenance companies? There are many articles now saying the knock on effect of no visitors is catastrophic to lots of businesses. No area with lower incomes can afford to lose 20% of all business. Unemployment and poverty follows.

There is a techie industry here. It’s software and web development.

Well there was an industry until everyone got furloughed

Well you can read the economic reports put together by Cornwall Council, the LEP, innovation hubs and universities and make your own analysis 🤷‍♀️

I do certainly agree about the infrastructure and the trains are so slow but plenty of people don’t travel out of Cornwall much and definitely want Cornwall to remain cut off! Or even separate!

Having self determination (devolution style) isn’t the same as wanting to be ‘cut off’, nor has it anything to do with views on the benefits and drawbacks of tourists visiting Cornwall.

20% is a lot. That’s 1 in 5 jobs. It’s the biggest sector.