PLANS to create a new £4.46 million sports hub which could provide a home for Cornwall have been approved.
The League One side currently play out of Penryn, five miles from Falmouth, but may move to the new facility to be built at the Langarth Garden Village development, near Truro, nine miles away.
Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee has approved the project to build a ground for Truro City Football Club, owned by the same Canadian consortium, led by former Toronto Wolfpack owner Eric Perez, as Cornwall RLFC.
City, who play in the National League South, two levels below the Football League, are currently based in the Somerset town of Taunton, 120 miles away.
Their old Treyew Road home was sold to make way for a supermarket.
The new venue will be located on land formerly earmarked for the Stadium for Cornwall, which would have held 10,000 and housed City, rugby union club Cornish Pirates and possibly Cornwall RLFC.
Funding issues led to the £14 million-plus project being dropped in 2022.
The scaled-down Truro Sports Hub will also house local clubs as well as providing community facilities for the use of local residents.
There will be a main arena, with a capacity for 3,000 spectators and the potential to increase to 4,000, to be completed this year (temporary building will enable City to start the 2024-25 football season there), and a community pitch to follow in 2025.
City have provided £2.03 million from the sale of Treyew Road, with £2.43m of funding coming from the Langarth Garden Village budget.
The community pitch and associated work including car parking will be funded through £800,000 of Football Foundation grant funding and around £1.74m of Langarth capital.
Perez said: “This is a landmark day in the history of Truro City Football Club and for Cornwall as a whole.
“We wish to thank everyone who worked tirelessly to get us to this point.”
Cornwall RL added: “This is wonderful news for Truro City and the wider Cornish sporting community.”
