Like many people who grew up in
this part of Cornwall, I have fond childhood memories of Carn Brea Leisure
Centre. It has been an essential part of the local community for well over
forty years. I have been running since I was nine, when I first joined Cornwall
Athletics Club. Throughout my twenties I was running for Cornwall and at the
peak of my fitness I was running around 80 miles per week. It was a big part of
my life, and a lot of it revolved around training at Carn Brea.
At any given time, there are over
1000 children learning to swim at Carn Brea. It is therefore great news that
the management team have secured funding from Sport England to refurbish the
pool and deliver other maintenance and improvements.
The work will start this summer,
and will finish at the end of the year. It will ensure that facilities are
sustained for existing users, as well as the next generation of swimmers. Carn
Brea is Cornwall’s first Charitable Trust Leisure Centre, and provides health
and wellbeing facilities in the heart of our local area. I am pleased to hear
that during the pool refurbishment, facilities including the gym, running
track, café and fitness classes will still be open.
We now need to focus our efforts
on raising the remaining funds needed. The fundraising campaign will start in
May, when full plans of the project will be unveiled. I hope that the
fundraising campaign will be a real community effort, in the true spirit of
Carn Brea.