St Just Town Council Expresses Interest in Devolution of Carnyorth Outdoor Activity Centre

I want to update folks and I’ll likely add to this post next week and the reason for that will become clear as you come towards the end. First of all, if you are wondering why I and the Town Council are engaged in conversations about taking on responsibility for an outdoor activity centre that primarily serves Cornish schools, you might need to catch up on the background.

The Carnyorth Centre so far

Despite fine words coming from Cabinet Members of Cornwall Council and Officers, the fact that the Centre is being marketed through Vickery Holman does cause a worry, and you can read what they say, for yourself: Vickery Holman Sales dets

So, St Just Town Council have expressed interest, as agreed at their meeting in June:

We, St Just Town Council, wish to express an interest in Carnyorth Outdoor Activity Centre site being devolved to us, along with all equipment on the site. This is so we can work in partnership with Pendeen Community Heritage (with an established record of running the Geevor site locally) and/ or Cohort Educational Trips (who provide young people with opportunities to take part in outdoor activities), to continue to provide residential educational activities.

Both Pendeen Community Heritage and Cohort Educational Trips have agreed to be named as partners in this bid and want to work with St Just Town Council to ensure Outdoor Education Activities continue to run from the site. They are both starting to discuss the part they can take in running the Service for Town Council from the established Carnyorth site.

The closing date for expressions of interest has now passed. We know that the Town Council are not the only interested party but we do not know who is also interested and the basis of their interest. The fact that the Centre was a resource for schools, throughout Cornwall means it does not qualify to be registered as an Asset of Community Value as the Act can only be used to protect premises that is primarily local community use (not sure who or how ‘local’ is decided).

So, I’ll update this post once we know whether we are being invited to take our bid further. In the meantime; local residents have made a website, mainly as part of their campaign to save the Centre BUT also to capture all the lovely comments from children that have visited over time as, when it closes at the end of this month, these could all be lost. The Centre captured

UPDATE AUGUST 2022

Our expression of interest as a Town Council in partnership with Cohort and Pendeen Community Heritage, is being taken seriously and we are through to the 2nd round of bidding. I gather we have stiff competition and led to believe all want to do outdoor education, of some kind but, without knowing who they are, we do worry for the long term. Fingers crossed that the words of Cornwall Council are genuine and this is about keeping what is good about the service there, not about making money – Town Council will not be entering a bidding war on a site that, in our view, already belongs to the community!