Coronation Park was built in 1912 and continues to be a treasured asset within Helston. The Lake and Park provide high profile, green space adjacent to the town centre with great potential for supporting the community, attracting people to Helston and developing the town’s visitor economy.
In 2018 South Kerrier Alliance CIC (SKA) agreed a 99-year devolution lease with Cornwall Council, and now operate the Park successfully as a ‘not-for-profit-community-asset’. SKA raised funding to refurbish the Park in 2019 which now attracts visitors from across the area, day-trippers and tourists.
Free-to-access, visitor numbers have increased since refurbishment, attracting people to Helston as well as supporting the local community. The Park includes multiple family amenities, skatepark and lovely walks around the lake plus a café and cycle hire business.
The centrepiece of the Shared Prosperity Fund project is the construction of a covered activities, trading and performance space in the Park, opposite Lakeside Café. A permanent timber structure, in keeping with the Park’s aesthetics, which can be covered as an all-weather events space and market trading area, it will increase the number of Park events and activities throughout the year. Regular market stalls will provide opportunity for small traders and enable expansion of the successful Helston Farmers’ Market.
The funding will also support a refurbishment of the café toilets and solar panels to help to reduce running costs as well as storage space for activity equipment and expansion space for the cycle hire business. Additionally, the project provides a new role of Activities Coordinator for SKA plus an office for Park staff and youth workers.
The capital works, which will be completed by June 2024, will sensitively develop an existing town centre asset, encouraging people to spend more time in Helston, benefitting the local community and the town’s economy.