Cornwall’s Mining Heritage

I was very disappointed not to be able to join all those congregated in the harbour on HMS Cornwall last Monday evening.  I wanted to be able to thank all those who have served their country on this ship.  Having to be back in Parliament at 9am on Tuesday morning to sit on the Welfare Reform Bill Committee prevented me from doing so.  A bill committee is like a mini parliament that considers new legislation line-by-line, debating each aspect of what the Bill intends to achieve.  I believe the Welfare Reform Bill, which aims to simplify the benefits system with the introduction of the Universal Credit, removing poverty traps and ensuring that work always pays, is one of the most important reforms of this Parliament.

On Wednesday I was pleased to join an Opposition Day Debate on Sure Start Children’s Centres.  I have visited the Falmouth centre and was impressed with the work undertaken to support families with young children.  I was pleased to speak-up for Sure Start and the continued support that both Parliament and Cornwall Council is giving them.  Cornwall Council has decided not to close any Sure Start Centres and is currently consulting on ways of reducing administration costs and ensuring that those that would most benefit from the services actually receive them.  During the General Election Campaign, the Labour Party really scared a number of my constituents by saying that Conservatives would close Sure Start Centres.  It was as untrue then as it is today.

Over the weekend, in addition to my usual weekly advice surgery and meeting with a variety of local people and organisations, I was pleased to join the Open Day of King Edward Mine on Sunday.  This mine was until relatively recently the training mine for the Camborne School of Mines that is now part of the University of Exeter and Combined Universities of Cornwall.  It is run by a team of dedicated volunteers who have maintained some of the rarest working mining machinery in the world.  It was a real treat.  I am very much hoping that as the new Local Enterprise Partnership finds its feet, it will look at what more can be done to promote our UNESCO World Heritage Sites and our mining heritage.  The world class mining engineers that Cornwall has produced are not a thing of the past, they are very much part of our future.  Today, mining engineers come from all over the world to Cornwall to develop new mining techniques.  I was delighted to learn that the King Edward Mine will be the location of the 34th International Mining Games.  The Games will be hosted by the students of Camborne School of Mines and will take place between 29th March and 1st April 2012.

The competition was started in 1978 in honour of the 91 miners that died in the Sunshine Mine disaster in the USA.  The Games are extremely competitive with teams from Australia, America and Canada.  This is the first time that the Games are to be held in Europe, and a landmark event for Cornwall.