FOLLOWING concerns by people still living at Cornish heritage site Heartlands that maintenance of the site had stopped landowner Cornwall Council has announced it has taken back control.
Parts of the Pool site run by the Heartlands Trust closed on January 31 after the National Lottery stopped its funding programme, claiming that the site was unsustainable, meaning that the trust then went into administration.
Cllr Philip Desmonde, who represents the area, brought up the plight of tenants to Cornwall Council, calling for urgent help for those living on site who had been left in the dark about utilities and services after the trust folded.
A resident told him “we now have no idea or means of contact regarding how to pay our bills. What do we do if we have emergencies, utilities, flood, boilers, smoke alarms going off? It is completely unacceptable that we have been treated with such a lack of respect when we are paying for a service that we’re currently not receiving.”
Cllr Desmonde added that the management, care, protection, security and financial arrangements with businesses, tenants and future potential businesses on the site was essential.
Now, Cornwall Council’s leader Linda Taylor has announced that the local authority took back control of the Heartlands site last week.
Cllr Taylor told a meeting of the council’s Conservative Cabinet: “It was disappointing to see the site in the position where several areas had to close back in January and the state of limbo we found ourselves in since has been incredibly frustrating.
“Last week saw an insolvency practitioner appointed by the Trust enabling the lease and management agreement to be handed back to the council, meaning we can now formally undertake things like the grass cutting and maintaining the grounds, repairing outdoor play equipment, emptying bins and carrying out essential maintenance to the buildings.”
She added: “It is a pleasure that those still living and working at the site will be given the reassurances that these matters are in hand and I look forward to sharing our future plans for the site as they are developed.”
