WEEK IN WORDS
Are Truro City really heading home? Plus Chris Todd joins Gloucester City as manager
TRURO CITY will find out on Tuesday if they can return home after plans to redevelop their ground stalled.
The National League South club were evicted from Treyew Road just two weeks before the new season and have been groundsharing at league rivals Torquay United, 100 miles away where crowds have dipped below 150.
Development company Helical Retail, who own Treyew Road, have planning permission to build a Lidl supermarket and other retail outlets on the site and wanted to start building in October.
But once Truro had moved into Torquay’s Plainmoor Stadium, Helical told Truro chairman Peter Masters that they were no longer going ahead with the development and were looking for someone else to take the project on.
Helical paid Truro £20,000 to stay at Torquay but now say that they will let Truro know on Tuesday whether they have any alternative plans for the site and if not, the club has the option to move back in. National League chiefs are in favour of the club returning to Cornwall.
Masters relayed this information to supporters at a meeting on Thursday evening and also confirmed the club was still committed to the Stadium for Cornwall plans.
The club had agreed to provide £2 million towards the stadium which was to come from Helical as part of the development agreement.
Rugby club Cornish Pirates and Truro and Penwith College had also pledged £2m each to fund the stadium with a further £6m coming from Cornwall Council and central government, providing the business case is approved with an announcement expected in the Autumn budget statement later this month. The Pirates, who will own the stadium, and the college have offered to provide £1m each to cover Truro’s share but this means the agreement, that would have seen City secure a 125-year lease at peppercorn rent, falls away and a different commercial deal structured. Masters said: “We will keep supporting the Stadium for Cornwall, that will be our home. “I would love us to be here (Treyew Road) but the reality is it is gone, unless a miracle happens it is gone.”
“I WOULD AT LOVE US TO BE BUT TREYEW ROAD IT THE REALITY IS HAS GONE UNLESS A MIRACLE HAPPENS” – Peter Masters