Extra £10m agreed for Pydar regeneration scheme

The £160m project includes 300 homes, a university centre, a hotel and restaurants

Cornwall councillors have agreed an extra £10m for a stalled multimillion-pound development in Truro.

Work stopped on the Pydar scheme, for a number of reasons, after the demolition of a multi-storey car park and buildings, including the former Carrick District Council offices.

The £160m project includes 300 homes, a university centre, a hotel and restaurants.

"The cost of not doing this will be greater in the long term," said councillor Chris Wells.

Last week, Cornwall Council's cabinet heard how work on the Pydar Regeneration Scheme would become "abortive" without extra funding.

On Wednesday the cabinet agreed an extra £10m for the project after hearing that without the scheme Truro’s economy would get worse.

Councillors have agreed a further £10m for the Pydar development

Councillor Louis Gardner told fellow cabinet members: “The scheme is incredibly important for Truro’s declining town centre, which is in urgent need of intervention."

He said the total net revenue of the project equates to £261m over 40 years with a further £251m of economic benefits.

Mr Wells said: "It's been a dead site for far too long.

"We've just got to have faith that this will be the final part of the puzzle that brings it to fruition."

Progress affected

The £10m capital funding is intended to cover project costs over the next two years by enabling further design and re-phasing work.

Councillor David Harris said: "Progress has been significantly affected by a number of factors, including the pandemic, high interest rates and very large increases in building costs.

He said: "The latest gremlin was the impact of the Building Safety Act, which placed additional requirements on buildings over 18 metres high, which was a sudden change from the previous 30-metre guidance and obviously now requires significant redesign.”

Mr Harris said a potential private lender has been identified which had agreed in principle to provide the required funding but that "a lot of the terms of this have not been hammered out".