Stadium for Cornwall will deliver more benefits to county than originally thought. The council have been told that the Stadium for Cornwall will deliver more benefits for the county than previously thought.

Stadium for Cornwall will deliver more benefits to county

A special briefing was held on Thursday to give councillors more information and the chance to pose questions to those behind the stadium before they make a decision on whether the provide £3million to the project.

The stadium, which is planned for a site near Threemilestone outside Truro, has been a long term ambition. It would provide a home for the Cornish Pirates, Truro City Football Club and facilities for Truro and Penwith College.

However the retail development has stalled and so the partners approached Cornwall Council earlier this year and asked for £6m of public money to reach the £14m needed to build the stadium.

Cornwall Council officers have suggested that the authority could provide half of the funding with the rest provided from central government, fulfilling a promise made by former Prime Minister David Cameron that the government would step in if required.

On Tuesday all 123 members of Cornwall Council will meet at County Hall and decide whether the council should provide the £3m for the project.

At the briefing this afternoon councillors heard from Mike Thomas of Cornwall Sports Partnership and Kim Conchie, chief executive of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, who outlined why they support the stadium.

He added: “If Cornwall misses this opportunity to demonstrate our vision for the future we will be kicking ourselves in a few years’ time and not a ball.”

He said that the total health and wellbeing benefits of the stadium could be worth an estimated £27m to public services in Cornwall.

Nigel Blackler, from Cornwall Council, who has been working on the stadium project for the council since the beginning of the year, highlighted that it was not unusual for local authorities to get involved with stadiums.

He produced a list of stadiums which had received financial backing from councils which included Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium which had £22m from Manchester City Council; the Liberty Stadium which is used by Swansea City FC and received £27m from Swansea City Council and the Arbor Park Stadium which is used by Slough Town FC and received £7.9m from Slough Borough Council.

Mr Blackler told councillors that the stadium proposals as they were now were far different and much better than they were in 2012 when they had previously been detailed.