If plans to reopen a closed leisure centre on an historic headland fail then the whole site would be the subject of ‘rewilding’.

Next Wednesday (December 14) Cornwall Council’s cabinet meets to decide whether to devolve Pendennis Headland to Falmouth Town Council.

Members are being recommended by officers to hand over the headland, including Ships and Castles leisure centre, for nominal fee of £1 to the town council. It will all have to be done by March 2023.

Following the closure of the Ships and Castles leisure centre in March this year after its operator GLL said it could no longer afford to run it,  Cornwall Council and Falmouth Town Council entered into discussions about the future use of the building.

Those negotiations then expanded to also consider the council’s interest in Pendennis Headland.

The proposal now is to transfer Cornwall Council’s interest in the site, by way of a freehold transfer to the town council for £1.

Falmouth Town Council then intends to enter into a lease with community interest company Pendennis Leisure with the intention of reopening it as a leisure facility.

Should this partnership fail and the reopening prove impossible then the town council says it has a secondary plan that would see Ships & Castles ‘rewilded’.

The town council intends to keep the rest of the site as a public open space as it is now.

In November this year, the town council resolved unanimously that it confirmed its intention to receive the unencumbered transfer of Pendennis Headland from Cornwall Council and that annual maintenance costs be broadly offset by transferring lease incomes.

It would then, as soon as possible, hand over the closed Ships and Castles Leisure Centre building to Pendennis Leisure CIC for a peppercorn lease for them to recommission and reopen the pool, or an enhanced pool provision within the site.

Should Pendennis Leisure CIC fail to reopen the facility then the council would demolish it and re-wild the site.

The remainder of the site would remain with the town council which would manage it as part of its grounds maintenance portfolio.

If the devolution goes ahead, Cornwall Council has agreed to a grant of £31,000 to support the financial costs to the town council of owning and managing the area, although not Ships and Castles.

Cornwall Council holds just over £62,000 of Section 106 funding associated with the site which officers from the town council and the council are working together to find the best way to use.

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The options available to cabinet are:

  • Selling the site and giving some of the money made to provide a new leisure facility somewhere else.
  • Transfering its interest in the site to the town council, the recommended option.
  • Transfer part of the site to the town council i.e. Ships & Castles or the wider Pendennis Headland
  • Do nothing and Cornwall Council keeps the site.
  • Dispose of Ships & Castles on the open market, but keep the headland.

The cabinet meeting takes place on Wednesday, December 15 at 10am. You can attend the meeting remotely through Cornwall Council's website.