A massive £570,475 grant has been awarded by the Sport England Lottery fund towards the scheme to regenerate Saltash's Saltmill site. The money, which has been awarded to Caradon council for the project, will help fund sporting facilities at the site, which was once the location of a tidal mill and was more recently a land fill site.
The area will be opened in October 2000 as a multi-purpose venue for sports, arts and recreation activities, the award from Sport England helping provide a full size synthetic turf pitch, changing rooms, a skate park and a BMX circuit.
The project, on 17 acres of land on the banks of the Tamar, has been undertaken by Caradon in partnership with Groundwork Plymouth area as part of a national initiative to reclaim more than 1,700 hectares of derelict and underused land.
Saltash residents have been involved in deciding what sporting facilities were most needed locally, and those to be provided will help develop hockey, soccer, 'street' basketball, roller hockey, BMX biking and skate-boarding.
The award to Caradon helped the amount given by Sport England for com-munity sports facilities throughout Cornwall sur-pass the £12 million mark.
In all projects in the South West have attracted £96.8 million since January 1995, towards total project costs of £156 million.
Caradon chairman, Godfrey Smale, said: 'This will be a wonderful facility for the people of Saltash and South East Cornwall as a whole. The new floodlit all weather pitch will provide a first class facility for the development of sports such as hockey and football, whilst the new BMX and skateboarding areas will give a focus for these emerging sports. Young people in Saltash have been campaigning hard over this issue for the past few years, and I am very pleased to see their efforts rewarded.'
Jon Andrewes, chief executive of Groundwork, said the project 'is not just for 'sporty' types. The area will be a park for everyone to enjoy.