JUST weeks after Cornwall Council was accused of not being “bothered picking the phone up” to secure a deal to bring a Courtyard by Marriott hotel to Cornwall Airport Newquay, the local authority has announced a deal has now been agreed.

The deal will see up to £30-million of direct investment in the development, a well as the creation of 30 full-time equivalent jobs. The agreement brings a world-renowned hotel, leisure and business complex to Cornwall that will serve the airport, Newquay and wider Duchy.

In January, it was reported there was growing anger among stakeholders involved in a deal to bring the exclusive Marriott hotel to the airport because they said Cornwall Council had gone silent on the project. Their ire increased with the news that a deal by the council to find a financial partner to ‘privatise’ the airport had also stalled.

The council had been in talks with Fairbairn Capital – a private equity firm - about bringing the first Marriott hotel in Cornwall to the airport in late 2022 after the local authority’s agents Vickery Holman marketed a 1.55-hectare site at the Aerohub Business Park, adjacent to the airport, for use as a hotel with planning permission attached.

A formal offer was made to the council in December 2022, with heads of terms agreed the following February. Machinations by the council to find a financial partner to run the airport started later that year and those involved in the Marriott project said it was then that the council went silent on their own deal.

An insider involved with the deal said in January: “The council loses one deal and is at risk of losing another. No one has been in touch with us. They’re at risk of losing this deal for a Marriott hotel through inactivity.”

At the start of 2025, those involved in the hotel project were in the process of speaking to the ombudsman and requesting a judicial review against Cornwall Council had the airport partnership deal with American asset management company Adynaton / Westcore gone through.

Subject to finalising all legal agreements over the next few weeks, it is expected that a planning application will be made during the course of this year.

Cllr David Harris, Cornwall Council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for resources, said: “I am really pleased to be able to announce this agreement has been reached. It is just one small step among the wider plans to make better use of the airport estate where we continue to discuss opportunities with our preferred partner moving forwards.”