As College Principal, you quite rightly get asked some challenging and difficult questions. The question ‘Why support and invest in a stadium for Cornwall?’ is not one of them. The answer is straightforward and linked directly to why we support and invest in Cornwall itself, and in its future. That kind of investment is something we as a college are committed to doing, and have been doing for a quarter of a century.

Our commitment is to helping individuals and businesses know more and do more (often referred to as “learning and skills”) so that they in turn can contribute much more. Places themselves, like people, can become more self-sufficient and prosperous and healthy and resilient if, through investment, they are given the opportunities and the support they need. There is no better type of investment, and no better return on investment.

As a College, for example, we would like Cornwall’s business and employer community to have outstanding accessible facilities - to network within and beyond Cornwall, to find the best advice and support, to hold conferences and meetings of real scale and impact, to showcase what Cornwall is and does, to attract potential investors from across and outside Cornwall. The stadium and its new business centre will provide such a venue.

As a College we would like to contribute more to the crucial work of improving the health and well-being of families and individuals in Cornwall at all stages of their lives – through getting people to understand the benefits of exercise, good diet, recreation, teamwork. The stadium will not only offer a fantastic venue for these things, but it will actively promote them across a much wider community.

As a College we know there are great opportunities to enrich the cultural life of Cornwall through a new large performance venue like the stadium.

We know the stadium will allow us to grow our successful Catering and Hospitality provision, and further enhance the quality and reputation of these crucial industries in Cornwall.

There are also the huge benefits for sport, not just the extending of the elite sports programmes where the college now has produced many notable alumni, but the kind of sport for all initiatives that involve as wide a section of the community as possible in its benefits.

And clearly we would love to see Cornish rugby and football go the next levels with our many learners and stakeholders of all ages among the crowds cheering them on. There is a passion for sport in Cornwall which deserves and could have more to cheer about.

Whatever the outcomes of the current national political debates, Cornwall will need to ensure it and its inhabitants are as self-sufficient, as skilled and smart, as confident and resourceful as possible to secure the kind of future it needs and deserves. The stadium supports all of these aims for Cornwall, and so the College supports the stadium.

David Walrond

Principal

Truro and Penwith College