With the continuing debate over the future of Penlee Quarry as a marina, with housing and an hotel, the whole question of such facilities around Penwith is brought to the fore once again.
At various times there have been suggestions for such docking schemes at Hayle in any harbour redevelopment, at Newlyn, at Penzance and now at the disused quarry. With the way things are panning out at Hayle any such notion there could well be many years hence.
The quarry scheme is a privately financed one and there is growing opposition to it from the environmental lobby. Notwithstanding, much work has been put into bringing the plan thus far and the developers must be given a fair chance to show the workability or otherwise of their scheme giving due regard to environmental and other concerns voiced in recent weeks in our letters column.
The forum for the regeneration of Newlyn would seem to have got its act together in getting support from the various government funding agencies and at this stage must be the front runner in the provision of an element of marina facilities, yet there are those that believe that the area could support more than one marina.
This leaves Penzance and we are prompted to ask how effectively the town's corner is being fought on this front.
There have been several studies and wide public support for such facilities over many years, but seemingly scant progress.
It is time we got our act together in support of a coherent, unified harbourfront scheme for the town. The bay is the town's greatest asset.
Such a refurbished harbourfront, including a marina, would enable Penzance to turn its face once again to the sea with a vibrant waterfront attracting tourists and business from throughout the county and beyond.
And as a starter for this particular debate can we suggest the car park is excavated and returned to maritime use with car parking facilities being provided elsewhere in the harbour area with reclaimed land.
In this respect we must strive for the very best for the town not be fobbed off with some second best option.
This would allow us to right the wrong of that decision all those years ago to infill the harbour for a car park and to give Penzance a truly maritime flavour linking with the current harbour and the Promenade.
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