Cornwall residents furious as seaside hotspot ‘like theme park for the rich’

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During the summer months many British people travel to Cornwall for a staycation. But some St Ives residents have expressed their frustration at the way the town has ended up.

Stefan Harkon, a St Ives RNLI lifeguard, explained: “At times, people in the town feel that they are just operatives in a theme park.

“We work in an area but we can’t live in it. We need quality jobs and more affordable housing.

“We need to invest in our young people and their future in whatever way we can. They need to have a sense of ownership of their town for if they don’t feel the community where they live appreciate them, we’ll only see a continuation of this loop we’re in and the brain-drain will continue.

“You’d think it’d be a no-brainer for tech companies wanting to choose locations like St Ives.

“Perhaps the universities and colleges should look at having other campuses in places like St Ives, but at the moment all we have is a one-can narrative that is all about tourism.

“The outlook is pretty bleak for young people in our county right now. Tourism has become the new fishing and tin mining but you can’t get a mortgage or a career on seasonal jobs. So round and round we go,” he told Cornwall Live.

Many residents are frustrated by wealthy second home owners who visit the town for a few weeks every year.

Camilla Dixon, co-founder of the First Not Second Homes campaign group, said: “We have a town where the rich people come to on holiday, when in some part of St Ives more than a third of children live below the breadline.

“It is having a detrimental effect. We depleted our social housing stock when they were sold in the 80s.

“Because the value of land has gone up, developers have been land-grabbing and land banking to make more money.

“It means genuine social housing developments are being priced out. It became even more obvious during the pandemic when it all got out of hand.

“Now everyone’s building extensions, converting lofts and every square metre they can to turn it all into holiday lets. The appeal to make money that way is just far too tempting.”

Fellow campaigner Jo Howard added: “It’s the law that needs to be changed. The loophole on second homes not paying council tax or business rate must be closed and a tourism tax brought in on second homes.

“Right now it feels like a pressure cooker that came to the boil with Covid and the G7 summit. People are telling us they’re being evicted from their homes to make way for Airbnbs.”

Soaring house prices and the rising cost of living have left St Ives with some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Cornwall despite the £1million homes overlooking the harbour.

Department of Education data shows that around 36 percent of children living on the Penbeagle estate live in poverty.

Chris Wallis who runs St Ives foodbank, said: “I see so many people in desperate needs. Normally we’d be helping out 14 families a week but during the pandemic that went up to 35.

“Now we give out about 1,000 meals a week and it’s the cost of living that’s pushing the numbers up.”

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