Report On The Implementation Of The Council Of Europe’s Charter
To The Closed Gorsedd, June 5, 2004.

Last year I reported that Cornwall Council had formed an Advisory Group on Cornish, including Government Office for the South-west and the language movement, to commence the process of implementing the Council of Europe Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, under Part II of which Cornish had been specified. This group formed a Steering Group to carry out a consultation process open to all and then to draw up a Strategy for the development of Cornish. The Steering Group consists of one officer from GOSW, two from Cornwall Council (one of whom is a bard) and five from the language movement, of whom four are bards including myself as chairman. Work began in June and we have met 12 times to conduct the business of the consultation process. A budget of £10,000 has been provided jointly by Cornwall Council and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to support this process.

A consultation evening was held in each District and special focus meetings were held for Education, Commerce, Public Life and the Media. Submissions were also received by post, e-mail and telephone. In addition, four members of the Steering Group, plus Geoff Grigg the LEA Modern Languages Adviser, made a study visit to the Isle of Man to see what progress had been made with Manx following the decision of the Manx government to support the language about 12 years ago. All the information from the consultation and the Isle of Man visit were fed into the preparation of the Strategy, which has recently been published in draft form. Copies in English or Cornish can be obtained from our bard Gwydhvosenn (Jenefer Lowe) at County Hall. The deadline for the submission of comments on the draft is 30 June.

County Hall, Truro

The Steering Group is meeting on Tuesday of next week to chart the course from July: receipt of comments on the draft strategy, research possible funding sources, draw up the requirements for a Language Officer and propose structures to manage and monitor the process.

We have received a certain amount of criticism over the past year from those who regard the whole consultation process and strategy as a way for the authorities to hit the ball into the long grass and hopefully to lose it. That all we have to do is to demand implementation and all will be well. Our view is that not everyone in County Hall or GOSW is an English imperialist and threats of legal action against the authorities would lead to absolute minimal implementation, just enough to comply. We will achieve better long-term results by an on-going dialogue with the authorities. We can now work with them to establish the necessary structures and to locate adequate sources of financial support.

CARADOK, Kaderyer Bagas-lywya an Strateji rag Kernewek. 05.06.2004