The Canon of a St Ives church accused of betraying the town for "30 pieces of silver" over its decision to sell its parish rooms to the highest bidder instead of a community group, has denied the charge.

Morag Robertson, chair of the St Ives Community Land Trust, says that the vicar of St Ia Parish Church, and Canon at Truro Cathedral, Andrew Gough, along with two members of the Parochial Church Council who have been handling the sale, ignored the public and decided to sell off the parish roooms ,which has been in community use for 170 years, as a development opportunity to the highest bidder.

Adding that this argument comes hot on the heels of much debate in the town during the last year on the effect of development on the resident community, which caused a flurry of national press coverage.

Morag said that the St Ives Community Land Trust made an offer of £300,000, and that she was, "disgusted with the attitude of the Church".

Canon Andrew Gough said: “We are saddened that the St Ives Community Land Trust has accused us of betraying the town over our decision to sell the parish rooms - that is absolutely not the case.

“Crucially, as trustees we were obliged by Charity Commission rules to try and get the best deal for our charity. We would not have been discharging our duties had we accepted their bid.

“We carried out what we believe was a fair process involving sealed bids, and it did not seem right or fair to us that we should have met with one potential purchaser and not others.

“It is simply untrue that we did not consider the land trust’s bid. We gave it exactly the same consideration as all the others. The land trust was given full access to the rooms for it to investigate a potential purchase, as were other potential bidders.

“The rooms are old and in need of substantial work: they have been a financial drain on us for some years.

“Most of the money raised by the sale will be reinvested in maintaining our iconic, 15th century church which is synonymous with St Ives. We are also looking at ways in which the church can be developed and used both by parishioners and by the wider community.”

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