Cornwall Council's Cabinet has backed plans to sell the land used by the running track adjoining Carn Brea Leisure Centre to fund an extensive refurbishment of the centre and to re locate the athletic track to a site at Redruth School.

Outlining the background to the proposal at this week’s meeting of the cabinet Alex Folkes, the member for finance and resources, said that the leisure centre building was in urgent need of improvement and that the authority had been working with Carn Brea Leisure Trust to investigate ways of funding these works.

Following an approach by a developer interested in developing food and non retail facilities at the site, the council had carried out an open marketing exercise earlier this year and has now decided to accept an offer from a developer for a food and non food retail scheme.

“We recognise the importance of the leisure centre to the local residents and are committed to working with the Carn Brea Leisure Trust to carry out improvements to the facilities,“ said Mr Folkes.

 “The proposal involves accepting one of the offers which are on the table and then using the proceeds from the sale to refurbish the leisure centre and re provide the running track. While we have been looking at a number of sites for the running track, our aim is to relocate it within the Camborne/ Pool/Redruth area, with the preferred option at Redruth School”.

Members of the cabinet unanimously supported the recommendation to sell the site of the running track and use the proceeds to refurnish the leisure centre building. They also supported the principle of relocating the athletics track to Redruth School and confirmed that the existing track would not be closed until the new track was open.

Colin Rowe, Carn Brea Leisure Centre Trust’s Chairman, said “We have been working alongside Cornwall Council for some time to reach this key milestone and are delighted that Cabinet has approved the exciting proposals, we are now very much looking forward to working through the next stages of the project with our various partners.”

In regard to the running track relocation, Mr Rowe stated “The Council and Trust were both committed to finding a suitable location within Camborne, Pool or Redruth as our first choice and it is fantastic news that Redruth School has been confirmed as the preferred location, which ,all being well, secures athletics provision within CPR for the long term.”

Mr Rowe added “We hope our users will be as excited as we are about the plans. If the project goes ahead the modernising of the leisure centre will provide the much improved facilities that our loyal users deserve and ensure a sustainable leisure centre remains at the heart of the community for many years to come.”