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Feelings are running high in the Cornish fishing port of Newlyn
over proposals to develop a seafood park in a local beauty spot.
Robert Jobson reports
A Cornish business leader has urged people to support a controversial
seafood park he describes as vital for the £70 million regeneration
of the county's main fishing port.
Michael Galsworthy, chairman of the Newlyn Fish Industry Forum,
stepped into the fray yesterday after 200 people packed a church
hall in Newlyn on Wednesday night.
He said: "This seafood park is the real turn-key for the whole
regeneration of Newlyn. Regeneration here is not just about the
fishing industry, which is vitally important, but about delivering
other benefits for the Newlyn community.
"To free up old buildings in the heart of Newlyn for affordable
homes, workshops for young artists and other enterprises, we need
to relocate most of the fishing businesses to modern premises.
"We believe this will help to safeguard the fishing industry
and cut traffic by keeping the large lorries out of the port. If
we stay as we are, the fishing industry will probably have to make
people redundant."
Almost £20 million worth of fish a year is landed at Newlyn,
but most is transported to Europe for processing after having to
be carried around the antiquated port with its scattered buildings,
through narrow, congested roads.
Among the £70 million regeneration plans are proposals to
spend £33 million on modernising the harbour, which directly
and indirectly sustains 700 jobs.
The controversy surrounds a South West Regional Development Agency
scheme to develop a supporting £4 million, 70,000 sq ft seafood
park covering 16 acres in green fields up the valley at Newlyn Coombe,
still close to the port but adjoining the A30.
Those privately-owned fields have yet to be acquired by the RDA,
and no planning application has been submitted. But feelings are
already running high for and against the project, with the "Save
Newlyn Coombe" group vowing to oppose the seafood park at every
turn.
Michael Tunstall-Behrens, of Rosudgeon, former Penwith chairman
of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "If an alternative
site is not found, this would be an act of utter environmental vandalism.
If you look on the other side of Penzance, at Eastern Green, you
will see it was ruined long ago. If this happens too, we will be
finished."
Stephen Bohane, the RDA's head of operations in Cornwall, said:
"We have worked with Penwith District Council and the forum
on how it can be delivered, and have received widespread support
from the fishing industry and other local groups.
"Because of a lack of brownfield sites, Newlyn Coombe has
been identified as a location, but it is still early days."
article copyright © WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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