Ships and Castles, Falmouth fight to save the headland

The sale of the closed Falmouth leisure centre site is being discussed at a meeting of Cornwall Council's cabinet on Wednesday, July 20.

The red line plan, shows boundary of the Ships and Castles site to be sold

Campaigners are arriving early to make their opposition known to the plans and to talk to councillors arriving for the meeting.

The meeting is to consider whether the Ships and Castles site is surplus to requirements and be sold.

The council will allow devolution discussions to go ahead with Falmouth Town Council and community interest company Pendennis Leisure about taking over the site for six months. If nothing is resolved by then it will go on the open market.

The green area to the rear would also go

It is also considering whether to waive its policy of pooling all capital receipts and either the full amount of the net capital receipt generated from the disposal of the property, up to £2 million, or 50% of the net capital receipt - whichever is the higher - is ringfenced for a period of five years from the date of approval of the report.

"This will provide match funding for a community led proposal for a new fit for purpose leisure facility, subject to a viable business case being submitted and approved to support the proposal," it says in the report.

Save the headland campaigner Ben Leach is encouraging as many people as possible to turn up at 8am on Wednesday at New County Hall in Truro to make their feelings known.

The area out front would be sold

"The recommendation has been made to begin the process to start selling the headland (the area in red), which when combined with the area in yellow means that a massive part of the headland will be rendered inaccessible to our community and will be given to luxury housing.

Planning permission for a public park and luxury homes has been granted for the area in yellow and the land is currently back on the market

"Many of us are still fighting to bring back Ships and Castles and will not stop fighting to protect the headland."

Posting on its Facebook page, Pendennis Leisure said: "A huge area of our beloved headland is proposed to sold to a developer.

"Much of this land is currently public green space used daily by families and dog owners. It is totally unnecessary for this to be included in the sale. This public land will be lost to the people of Falmouth for ever.

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"We have tried, and are still trying, to find a positive solution for our community to have access to this vital resource and to protect the headland from further development.

"We ask you to email the Cabinet members responsible for making a decision regarding the site on the 20th of July- to consider the impact of their actions on real people, and to implore them to understand that it is not too late to rectify past mistakes and to support Falmouth, Penryn and surrounding areas both in spirit and financially, in taking ownership of the site and to allow it to thrive as it should."