MORE than 230 people attended a meeting to hear how Cornwall’s first ski and snowboarding park could take shape.

Dan Olford and his family hope to build Altitude Cornwall on farmland at East Crinnis.

Dan, who was operations manager at the Eden Project for around ten years, is a keen skier and snowboarder - and he is passionate about creating a winter sports facility for all ages in the county.

‘The park will consist of a main slope, tube toboggan drop slide and nursery slope, along with trampolines and big air bag for learning tricks for the more adventurous of riders and for our youth academy,’ he said.

‘The site will be centred around an Alpine style visitor centre with a bar and restaurant. Conservation will be a big part of this project as we want to plant around 500 trees to create more woodland.’

A meeting on Monday (March 26) at Biscovey Academy was attended by a wide mix of people, said a spokesperson for planning agent Situ8, from children ‘interested and excited’ to hear about the plans, to councillors from the local parish and further afield.

The general feeling was positive, says Situ8, with a lot of enthusiasm shown towards the scheme.

‘There was a real balance of views, and definitely it tipped in favour of the ski slope,’ the spokesperson said.

‘Wherever there was a bit of negativity, you’d have another person go over and say “come on, this is going to be great”. People are saying why shouldn’t the next world champion come from Par.’

Feedback on things like accessibility from those who attended the meeting would be taken on board, said Situ8.

Concerns were raised over the six houses proposed being ‘the thin end of the wedge’ of more development. A Situ8 spokesperson said that local people were understandably wary after a new development of 200 houses in the same area ’was approved against their will’.

The spokesperson added: ’There were some really good constructive comments from people in the community who weren’t just coming in and saying “no”.’