Sporting a red rosette, a red coat and a red badge it is obvious which party Jayne Kirkham represents and the Labour councillor is hoping that there will be more red on display in Cornwall Council's chamber after the May elections.

Currently representing Falmouth Smithick she is standing for election in Falmouth Penwerris under the new council arrangements which will see the number of councillors cut from 123 to 87.

Labour currently has more than 60 candidates standing across Cornwall in almost all seats, one of the biggest showings it has ever had.

Under the current council, there are just four Labour councillors but after seeing its share of the vote in Cornwall rise considerably in recent General Elections it hopes to replicate that success in the local elections.

At the last General Election in 2019, Labour candidates were in second place in four out of the six Cornish Parliamentary constituencies including in areas like St Austell and Newquay which have long been strong areas for the Liberal Democrats who found themselves pushed back into third place.

Jayne, who has been a Labour councillor since 2017 after winning a by-election following the death of Candy Atherton, said she hoped there might be more Labour voices at County Hall in future.

"Since 2017 we have had such good turnouts in General Elections. In Truro and Falmouth, we came a really close second to the Tories. Labour are on the up in Cornwall."

Jayne said that she felt that people were more aware of what councillors do, not just at Cornwall Council but at town and parish council as well, partly due to those councils taking on more and more responsibilities.

Jayne continued:

"The double devolution for somewhere like Falmouth the town council plays such a big role now, they have taken on things like the toilets, the parks, the art gallery, and that has resulted in more people wanting to be on the town council as it is more worthwhile.

"And the same can be said for Cornwall Council – it has such a massive budget and you can have more impact in Cornwall if you are a councillor, even in a small group like ours, than you can in Westminster.

"As a small group we have looked at how we can get Labour policies in place at Cornwall Council and we are proud of the things that we have managed to do."

Jayne is clearly passionate about her role as a councillor and describes it as "the best job I have ever done" as she recalls her work representing Falmouth.

"I love it, I have been a councillor for three years and I have been surprised by how much I have been able to do.

"It is hard work but you do feel that you can change things. It would be nice to have a bigger (Labour) group but we will have to wait and see."

Whoever does get elected on May 6, there will be some big issues to be tackled by Cornwall Council after the elections.

Jayne said:

"Cornwall needs some TLC and we will need to build it back up again. There are a lot of issues that affect all of Cornwall and especially Falmouth. We have a real need for social housing, the current administration has been looking at it, but very slowly.

"We need truly affordable housing and council rental homes, rather than the current affordable homes which are 80% of the market rate.

"The after-effects of Brexit are also key, especially for the fishing industry, with Falmouth already feeling it. There are things that can and should be done. I had put my motion to full council to get the council to take action, it didn't get debated but there are things that we can do locally to help.

"We also need to look at health and social care – there is no cohesive plan for the NHS, social care and public health. With public health there has been no increase in funding, which is crazy in the middle of a pandemic, it has flatlined with no increase in budget for several years."

And for Jayne, there is a need for the council to shout louder and stand up for Cornwall:

"We have our six Tory MPs but they seem to be taken for granted somewhat. We need a strong vocal council to make sure that voice is heard. We need to shout loud down here to be heard in Westminster."

One thing that Jayne would like to see is a more diverse slate of council members after the election.

Three out of the four candidates standing for Labour in the Falmouth area are women and Jayne says that all candidates for Cornwall Council and the town council come from different backgrounds.

"We have a really good mix of people just in Penwerris, but that is the same across Cornwall. We have people who own their own businesses, people who work in the public and private sector, young and old, male and female.

"Hopefully we can get a broad range of people in the council chamber after the elections."

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