Happy 1st Birthday Pendennis Community Centre!!!
Exactly one year ago today we opened our doors as Pendennis Community Centre, after a month of frantic painting, fixing, plumbing, wiring, scrubbing, shifting, building, weeding, mowing, and lots and lots of cleaning by a swarm of lovely generous hard working volunteers!
After the swimming pool was decommissioned and the leisure centre emptied and closed in March 2022, we spent a year persuading Cornwall Council to give the site to the community, and another 8 months negotiating the asset transfer. Finally, with just a week’s notice, we signed the lease in August 2023 and then rallied friends, family and anyone else we could muster to get the site safe and ready for the public.
Everyone agreed, even with no pool, the centre should re-open while we worked out a way of getting Falmouth the swimming facilities the town deserves. Now, powered by a team of almost 40 volunteers, a brilliant coordinator and a squad of inspirational professional trainers, we can look back on an incredible first year. Proving the centre is viable as a community health and well-being hub is a vital part of our continuing journey to getting a functioning, sustainable swimming pool back for our community.
None of this would have happened without a huge amount of generosity and help at all hours of day and night from local people and businesses giving thousands of hours and pounds to the cause. Pendennis Leisure trustees offer a huge and heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you!
In the past 12 months our professional trainers ran over 1200 exercise classes for almost 6000 participants. They couldn’t have done this without support of our wonderful volunteers who really are the heart and soul of the Centre – we cannot thank them enough for their service. Our volunteers have enabled almost 1200 children to play in our crèche, our studios to be hired out 300 times for community events and our community café to open every morning every day for a whole year. They’ve brewed over 4000 hot drinks and sold over 1000 cakes (life is all about balance, right ?!)
Thank you to everyone who has attended a class, bought a coffee or cake, attended one of our community events such as Puppy Classes, Gong Baths, Meditation Sessions, French and Spanish Classes, Christmas Market, private meetings and parties and much more!
If we could ask one thing for our Birthday, we would encourage every member of our community to let us know your views on Cornwall Council’s new Leisure Framework published for consultation last week: https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/leisure_framework
We will be publishing our own response to this soon and will hold a couple of meetings this autumn to discuss it and our plans to get a new community pool open in Falmouth. Although there are some real issues with some of the detail of the document, on this happy day we believe we must take Cornwall Councillor Carol Mould at her word when she writes, “ Leisure services are key to supporting us all to prevent poor health and improve the quality of life for those that are already living with physical and mental health conditions.
Whilst Cornwall Council and its partners face significant challenges in regard to sustaining the current portfolio of leisure assets, the Council is committed to working with partners across Cornwall to ensure there is accessible and good quality provision over the next 10-years and well beyond. “
Happy Birthday Pendennis Community Centre!
Matthew, Gemma, Mark & Chris
Trustees of Pendennis Leisure