Cornwall Stadium – An Overview

Background
There has been a significant amount of review and discussion over the past few
years on the appropriate location for a sports stadium in Cornwall. The Camborne
Pool Redruth Urban Regeneration Company (URC) and the then Cornwall County
Council commissioned Drivas Jonas to produce a report in 2007, which looked at
a number of different locations and specific sites within Cornwall. The areas
considered included Saltash, St Austell, Newquay, Falmouth,
Camborne/Pool/Redruth (CPR), Truro and Bodmin. Following analysis, the viable
areas were reduced to CPR and Truro, where five sites were investigated.

Cornwall Council Process

When the Cornwall Council came into being in April 2009 it was keen to take
stock of the situation in regards of the Stadium. To assess and manage the
project the Council established:
• Cornwall Council Steering Board chaired by the Cabinet Member for
Economy and Regeneration to provide a strategic overview and steer the
project. The Board includes the Chief Executive and senior managers.
• Cornwall Council Officer Group chaired by Major Projects Manager in
Economic Development to manage and support the contract on a day to day
basis.
• Stakeholder Group chaired by Head of Economic development includes key
stakeholders including potential tenants and partners.

The Council commissioned stadium specialists Gardiner and Theobald (G&T) in

March 2010 to look at the possibility of creating a new sports and events stadium
in Cornwall. In order to establish the viability of a Stadium for Cornwall, G&T are
required to:
Stage 1 - identify a suitable location and undertake a market appraisal;
Stage 2 - assess the projects feasibility;
Stage 3 - produce a Business Case.

Process
Based on the findings of the site assessment exercise, G&T will move forward to
establish in further detail the suitability of the shortlisted sites for a Stadium for
Cornwall, including developing the facility mix, design and business case.
The study is expected to be completed in December 2010. If the study
demonstrates that the stadium can be delivered and supported both in terms of
capital and ongoing revenue then the Council Cabinet will look to make a
decision in 2011 whether to continue and deliver the project.

If a decision to proceed is made, any stadium proposal would then proceed

through appropriate processes, including planning.

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Summary of Site Assessment (Stage 1)
Stage 1 – Identifying a suitable location
Stage 1 involved an independent evaluation of sites with the potential to
accommodate and sustain a stadium complex that meets the requirements of the
Council’s cost issues and other potential key stakeholders. This is an essential
part of the overall feasibility assessment.
The G&T team’s identification of stadium sites involved revisiting earlier studies
and, most importantly, assessing any new potential sites.
The exercise ran between May and August 2010 and involved a series of internal
reviews by the G&T team and the Council. This process was designed to ensure
that the recommended sites offer strong opportunities for the future delivery of a
sustainable stadium project that meets the requirements set out in the project
vision. The Steering Board agreed the following vision to guide the development
of the project.
‘An inspirational multi use Stadium and Visitor Complex built to
exemplar environmental standards which maximises the economic
benefits to Cornwall, encourages participation in sports and is
accessible to all.’

G&T site identification process

In April 2010, supported by Council officers and Cornwall Development Company
(CDC), G&T began the site evaluation process. Indicative site criteria and
considerations were agreed to inform their process of identifying sites, based
around ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ characteristics for a series of potential stadium
and supporting facilities. There were four key considerations when identifying
possible sites:
• Stadium with professional sports team as tenants;
• Stadium with amateur/lower tier sports team as tenants;
• Community sports facilities; and
• Commercial/enabling development.
Evaluation criteria
Each of the sites put forward was firstly subject to initial pass/fail evaluation
based on:
• whether it meets the minimum size required to accommodate the stadium
footprint for the base facility (i.e. a 10,000 capacity stadium and associated
operational space – with no additional community facilities) OR
• Any other significant observation/reason.
Assuming that a site passed on this element, it was taken forward to the full
evaluation.

Based on its combined experience of similar projects, G&T developed a site

evaluation matrix specific to the Cornwall Stadium project. This included
consideration of a number of key site characteristics and feedback from the
Council and key stakeholders. Weightings were also applied (having been
discussed and agreed with the Council) to these criteria to reflect their relative
importance. The key areas evaluated were Transport, Social, Environment and

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Economic factors, with sub-criteria in each area. Each criterion was marked out
of 10.

Site Scoring Criteria:

The Officer Group reviewed the draft criteria and weightings, and proposed
amendments that were incorporated into the matrix. This was endorsed by the
Steering Board meeting held on 8 June 2010. The final matrix was then applied
to the longlisted sites.

G&T completed an initial draft scoring of all sites. The scores at which the team
arrived, and the rationale behind the score awarded on each criterion, were then
circulated to the Officer Group for their review and comment. On receipt of
comments, G&T re-scored sites where it was deemed appropriate in the light of
new information brought forward.

A second phase of review, comment, and amendment assimilation was

completed to reveal the preferred sites for the development of a Stadium for
Cornwall.
Shortlisting findings
Based on the pass/fail criteria detailed above, some sites were discounted from
further consideration.
23 specific sites were therefore evaluated in full against the agreed scoring
matrix, based on the information made available to the G&T team supplemented,
where possible, by additional G&T research.
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Application of the site scoring matrix suggested that privately owned sites in
Truro, and particularly in Threemilestone, are best suited for the Stadium.
Although factors differ between sites, this can largely be attributed to factors
including:
• Potential anchor tenants preference for the stadium to be in Truro – the G&T
team considers that a anchor tenant, such as, the Cornish Pirates is
extremely important for the viability, profile and sustainability of a Cornwall
Stadium project;
• The benefit of having a second anchor tenant in Truro City Football Club,
which is not possible beyond this conurbation;
• The greater appeal of Truro to the private sector and resulting greater
potential to deliver enabling development and be financially feasible, and to
deliver non-matchday usage at these sites;
• The opportunities created by the existence of the Truro West Park & Ride
scheme in the city, and potential for a further Truro East Park & Ride, with
particular potential to deliver a sustainable transport solution on matchdays;
• At Threemilestone in particular, the strong opportunities to deliver synergies
with nearby hospital and college sites.
However, in acknowledging the potential issues with delivering a stadium
complex on privately-owned land (the Council does not control any of the top-
scoring sites) the project team have suggested that sites in Council ownership be
revisited for their suitability in greater detail should the preferred Truro sites
prove undeliverable.

September 2010

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