Legal challenge threatens Stadium for Cornwall plans

Plans to build a £10m (US$12.3m, €11.1m) stadium+for+Cornwall'>Stadium for Cornwall have been thrown into doubt following a legal challenge made by a London-based property firm.

Helical, which has plans to develop a retail park near Truro, has called for a judicial review into the building of a rival retail park which is being created to fund the stadium’s construction.

Planning permission for the development – which is being proposed by Inox Group and Henry Boot – had been issued Cornwall Council in July.

Rob Saltmarsh, managing director of Inox Group, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the turn of events, highlighting the “importance of the stadium for many thousands of people in Cornwall”.

“We are confident that our retail application has been soundly determined by the council and that the council will robustly defend its decision-making process,” he added.

Inox and Henry Boot are working with Truro and Penwith College and the Cornish Pirates rugby team on the stadium, which is scheduled to be based at Threemilestone.

The stadium has been designed to be a multi-use sports and education facility that will be the permanent home for the Pirates.

“The Stadium for Cornwall has massive public support and is pivotal to our future plans for the club and our ambitions to bring Premiership rugby to Cornwall,” said Cornish Pirates interim chief executive Peter Child.

“At a time when we have attracted new investment into the Pirates and are working towards an international rugby partnership with two of the top sides in New Zealand, it would disappoint the whole community to see delivery of the stadium further delayed.”