THE FUTURE of one of Newlyn's best-loved buildings lies in the hands of the community.
The head of the Fishermen's Mission has pledged that the iconic North Pier premises will remain open until new owners take it over. The answer to ensuring the building is still available to serve fishermen could lie in a coalition of local bodies, according to Captain Dan Conley, the mission's chief executive, who visited Newlyn last week for high-level talks about how to safeguard its future. "We are very keen that the building remains for use as a fishing community asset, that is our aspiration," he told The Cornishman.
"In an ideal world this would become a fishing centre where we have still got a presence, as well as the producers' organisation, the fishermen's training body, even the harbour commissioners."
The national charity announced plans in October to shut its centres to concentrate funds on its main purpose: emergency and welfare support for fishermen and their families.
But Captain Conley said the charity was in no hurry to sell the building, which was bequeathed by the Bolitho family in 1911, saying it could remain open until someone took it on.
"We are going to take full consideration of the views of the local fishing community; no one is holding a pistol to our heads but we have got to make better use of our resources," he said.
The charity had invested £120,000 into the building in the past seven years and in order for its local work to continue, it could not afford to run centres for much longer, he added.
"People realise that we can't go on as we are because the fishing fleet here has declined in terms of numbers," he said, stressing that the building was run "at a substantial loss".
He said the move could leave the mission's employees with more time to spend with people and less on bureaucracy.
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