~Cornwall County Council~ hopes to use European regeneration funds to introduce three major schemes costing a total of £120M improving access by land, sea and air.
The council’s local transport plan for 2006 to 2011 includes three major schemes, the biggest being the Cambourne-Pool-Redruth regeneration project to build a new east to west link road to provide access to a regeneration area of Pool.
The £58.7M link road would consist of 3.6 km of single carriageway, including a high-level viaduct crossing of the Red River valley.
The first section of the route, the Barncoose Link Road, could be funded by £1.6M match-funding from the ~European Union~ objective one budget, on top of £1.6M of LTP2 funding.
The council also hopes to win European funding for two unusual LTP major schemes – one for a combined passenger and freight ferry to the Isles of Scilly, and the other for the costs of taking control of Newquay Airport from the military.
The airport is a unique case in the UK, with the council owning and operating landside facilities, such as the passenger terminal and car park, while the RAF controls the runway, security and air traffic.
A contract between the council and the ~Ministry of Defence~ allows commercial flights to use the airport, but the RAF is not under the jurisdiction of the Civil Aviation Authority, and under new regulations, it cannot continue to operate its half of the airport.
Around £20.8M will be needed to undertake the required works to convert the airport to complete civilian control. This would cover the cost of replacing the air traffic-control system, resurfacing the runway, and installing new security fencing, all required by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The new ferry is needed to replace two existing craft – the passenger vessel, which is due to be decommissioned in 2014, and the loss-making freight vessel.
It would require £26.5M of government funding and cost a total of £39.1M. The rest of the funding would come from £6.5M of European money, and a combined contribution from the Scilly Route Partnership of £6.1M.
The council’s assistant director of transport, ~Colin Jarvis~ described the two major schemes as being ‘very unique, and key to improving transport links throughout the county, and the rest of the country’.
He said that the airport would be used to cut the number of cars on the roads during holiday periods.