A Newquay community garden has launched a fundraising appeal to bring its redevelopment plans to fruition.

Crantock Street Community Garden has started a Crowdfunder campaign, which aims to raise £50,000 before June.

The committee has already been granted £100,000 in principle from Cornwall Council through a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) but needs the extra funds to complete the redevelopment designed by award winning landscape gardener Kim Parish from Landscapes of Distinction.

The much-needed makeover involves levelling out the site and installing a planting scheme, benches and various planters.

Anna Jay, the chair of Crantock Street Community Garden, said: “We have applied for £100,000 of funding from Cornwall Council from their CIL funding and they are in support of the project but given the level of demand received at the end of 2024, they have said that they will revisit this in June.

“They have asked us to provide them with a lot more detail on the project, so our designer Kim Parish is currently preparing detailed designs, with materials, timescales and a project plan.

“The ballpark figure for the project is £150,000. It sounds a huge amount but when you take into consideration the groundwork which is the main element, this makes sense, and we have been applying for funding from a number of different sources.

“Newquay Town Council have kindly agreed to some funding, but due to the high demand on national funders, some of our other applications have been unsuccessful but there are still some outstanding.

“We are therefore launching a Crowdfunder campaign in the hope that we can raise up to £50,000 more by June.

“This is very ambitious, but we have set the bar high. If we are not able to secure the full amount, we can scale back the project or deliver it in stages, but we are absolutely committed to making this community space as wonderful as possible for all of the community and visitors to enjoy.

“As part of the Crowdfunder, we are offering people the opportunity to sponsor some of the plants.”

Crantock Community Garden is holding its annual Big Lunch event on June 14 between 12pm and 3pm.

Anna Jay said: “The Big Lunch will be the biggest and best yet.

“As always, we encourage people to bring food to share, and everyone is welcome to join in. Bow River will be performing, and we'll likely have some guest appearances from some of the pupils from the Singing Studio in town. Expect Face painting and other fun activities.

“We are asking people and businesses to donate prizes for our famous raffle.

“Last year we raised over £584 from the raffle and had well over £1,000 worth of prizes from generous donations.

“We will also be offering people the opportunity to buy tickets online in the run up to the event, but we still want people to join us for the prize draw at the Big Lunch.”

So far £3,500 has been raised through the Crowdfunder. To make a donation visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/crantock-street-community-garden---redevelopment