WORK STARTS ON £1.8 MILLION FISTRAL BEACH SURF CENTRE

Work has started on creating a £1.8 million international surfing centre at Fistral Beach in Newquay that will provide top-class facilities for surfers and other beach users.

The project, which is being funded with £531,000 from the Objective One programme, has been developed in partnership between Restormel Borough Council, Cornwall County Council and a private company Britanic Industries.

The new Objective One funded facilities are being built by local construction firm E Thomas and the main building – which is being constructed on the site of the previous facilities at North Fistral – are planned to include a tourist information centre, surf history museum, toilets, changing rooms and training facilities. Complementary private sector developments include a quality restaurant, creche, hire costs and beach cafe.

Target date for completion is May 2003 and the project is expected to create up to 25 new jobs and attract an additional 15,000 visitors to Fistral a year. Five new international surf events and competitions are anticipated annually, generating an estimated £450,000 in extra income for Newquay.

The main building will be used by organisations like the British Surfing Association and Fistral's lifeguards. Its facilities will be open year-round and used for competitions, offices and high-quality training - provided by education partners like Cornwall College.

The surf centre will also be available to local community groups, as well as tourists, training organisations and other beach users. The project will eventually replace the existing facilities at South Fistral with a more modern building, containing toilets, a café and a lifeguard station.

Nick Briant of Britanic Industries, which manages a number of beaches in the Newquay area, said: “Newquay is already recognised as the surf capital of the UK and Fistral offers one of the best breaks around, but it has always lacked the facilities that people have come to expect. The new surf centre will change all that, offering year-round quality facilities for local people and visitors alike”.

Carleen Kelemen, Objective One programme director said: “This scheme will create higher quality of public infrastructure that Fistral needs to improve the quality of visitor experience at the beach.

“More and more people are using Cornish beaches year-round for a variety of activities and this project will ensure that trend continues at Fistral.”

Objective One is committing £531,000 from the European Regional Development Fund towards the project. Restormel is contributing £350,000 and Cornwall County Council £100,000. The remaining sum will come from the private sector.

The project was endorsed through the Objective One programme because of its focus on promoting Cornwall as a major surfing centre, its ability to attract the youth market and provision of high quality public infrastructure.