Surf statue consultation sees 400 supporters

The bronze surfer statue will mark 60 years of surfing and its industry in Newquay

Plans to erect a sculpture in Newquay celebrating surfing have been supported in a consultation.

The Keogh Foundation wants to donate a 5m (16ft) tall sculpture, showing a bronze surfer riding a wave to mark 60 years of surfing and the industry in the area.

A Newquay Town Council committee meeting was told last week a council consultation saw 220 objections to the plans, but 407 people agreed with it being erected in the Killacourt area.

The project is due to be discussed at a meeting of the full council next month.

Publicity 'worth £500k'

The consultation suggested siting the £100,000 statue in the Killacourt area, overlooking Towan beach.

Currently town council conditions prevent it being put up, but amendments to those conditions were to be debated by the full council on 7 September, the Environment and Facilities Committee was told.

Stuart and Cherry Keogh, of the charitable foundation, said they were supporting the project because they were “keen to give back to both the sport, and to Newquay" as both had supported their "success in life”.

The couple first moved to Newquay around the same time as the surfing trend took off in the area in the 1960s.

They went on to set up several surf-related businesses.

Malcolm Bell, of Visit Cornwall, said such a statue could provide the equivalent of £500,000 a year of publicity to the town, adding to the £130m to £150m a year the sport already generated.