A new stadium for the English county of Cornwall has received a major boost with the local council agreeing to pay £3m (€3.5m/$4.3m) towards its development.
Planning permission has already been granted for the 6,000-capacity, multi-sport Stadium for Cornwall complex in Threemilestone near Truro. The facility will be the new home of rugby union club the Cornish Pirates, which plays in the second-tier Championship, as well as housing a health club and conference facilities.
However, the £14.3m project still needs a further £3m in funding, with stakeholders now set to turn to the UK government, which pledged to make up any shortfall during the regime of then-Prime Minister David Cameron.
“I am relieved and elated,” Paul Durkin, chairman of the Cornish Pirates, said, according to UK newspaper The Guardian. “It has been a long haul but we got our message across that this was a stadium for Cornwall, not just the partners. Councillors have voted to make life better for the next generation and give them opportunities some people have not had so far.”
Local MP, Derek Thomas, said he will meet government officials today (Wednesday) to seek to ensure Cameron’s promise is kept. “We met with secretaries of state and ministers after David Cameron’s commitment, but we did not have a firm proposal then,” Thomas added.
“We do now and I have been doing a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between MPs and various groups in relation to this. The council’s decision makes it much easier for us to make the case for government funding to make up the shortfall.”
Image: Cornish Pirates
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