Ships and Castles leisure centre designs have been revealed

Pendennis Leisure trustees have shared their ‘Future Focus’ design proposals for what they want to create on the site on Pendennis Point, now known as the Pendennis Community Centre.

These have so far been presented to meetings of Falmouth Town Council and the Civic Society, and will be shared with the public at the next Pendennis Leisure community meeting on Tuesday, April 16 which everyone is invited to attend.

The Future Focus designs were developed by Awen Design architects and consultant engineers MBA of Truro using the funds raised during the Pendennis crowdfund along with a Good Growth capacity building grant from Cornwall Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The plans were submitted to Cornwall Council’s planning team for pre-application guidance earlier this month.

A proposed internal view of the building (Image: Pendennis Leisure/Future Focus)

Pendennis Leisure trustee Matthew Thomson said: “Our current design proposals are based on multiple engagements over two years with the community, local businesses and other stakeholders.

“We are really looking forward to finding out how the planners think we can make best use of this unique site for the people of Falmouth, Penryn and surrounding areas. Their input will be vital to the development of a long term viable plan to bring a pool back to the headland.”

Just before Easter, Cornwall Community Foundation (CCF) announced that the Pendennis Leisure charity was one of the largest recipients of Health Improvement funding in the county.

The community group working to save the former Ships and Castles site and develop a new swimming pool for the town was awarded £17,000 to fund a part time worker.

The new coordinator will join the growing team of over 30 volunteers and the four trustees of the charity who were recently honoured by Falmouth Town Council with the Andy Hocking Award for Community Service. The post will shortly be advertised on the charity’s websites and social media.

Gemma Adams, one of the charity’s founders said: “Our amazing volunteers have done an incredible job turning a decommissioned site into a welcoming, clean and safe community centre, but we always knew we would need to build a staff team to make sure the charity can achieve its mission to provide Falmouth with a public swimming pool.”

"Every week over 200 people use the community centre for fitness and wellbeing activities, so the CCF’s Health Improvement grant is a really good fit for us and we are very grateful to the Foundation for their support.”

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The Pendennis Community Centre has now been open for seven months, during which time it’s hosted over 700 exercise and wellbeing classes, meetings and other events for diverse community groups.

The café is open every morning and the studio spaces are available for hire for community use. Trustees aim to make the former pool area safe for public use as soon as possible to increase the range of activities that the centre can provide.

Trustees are asking all interested members of the community to come along to the next Pendennis Community meeting on Tuesday, April 16 at 6.30pm at the Pendennis Community Centre (formerly known as Ships & Castles) to comment on the charity’s plans.