A whole new heating network for Porthleven could be one step closer thanks to the town council winning £31,000 towards investigating the idea.

Although still in the very early stages, if the project eventually becomes a reality it could mean an environmentally friendly heat and energy network, run by the community itself.

An initial investigation commissioned by Cornwall Council identified Porthleven as a good opportunity for such a network, the details of which are still to be decided.

The Rural Community Energy Fund has now given £20,000 to pay for a study looking at how feasible the project would be, both from an engineering and a financial perspective.

The RCEF programme is jointly funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

A further £5,700 is being provided by Cornwall Council and will be used to get advice from the Community

Shares Company on the best legal structure to run a community scheme, as well as carry out more consultation in the community, to see how well such a project would be supported.

Another £5,500 has been won from the Awards for All Big Lottery Fund and has already been used to set up a community group, the Porthleven Environment Project, to oversee the project and liaise with residents, providing information and gathering feedback.

Porthleven town councillor Alan Jorgensen, who is leading the project, said: "The scheme will need to be right for Porthleven, both in the choice of heat source and the areas of the town able to access the network. We also need to be certain that the costs are sensible for the set-up and running of the scheme.

"We’re at a very early stage but the ultimate aim is to create a low-carbon, environmentally friendly heat and energy network run using renewable sources. The company that runs the scheme would be based within the community, using local skills and putting profits back into Porthleven.

"A huge amount of what we spend in Cornwall currently leaves the county as energy payments and this is a way to start bringing some of that investment back into our communities as well as protecting the environment. If the figures and the impact stack up it’s a very compelling proposition."

Initial investigations will be completed by the end of summer, ready for feedback by the community in the autumn.

The Porthleven Environment Project team will be attending the Armed Forces Day event at Porthleven School this Saturday to explain about the proposals in more detail and can be contacted via porthlevenenvironment@gmail.com or through the group's Facebook page.