Top Cornish Attraction Receives Tax Payers Cash

It is easily recognisable as one of the top tourism attractions in the country, and very few visitors to Cornwall leave without having paid a visit. It therefore comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that the Eden Project just outside St. Austell is being described in some quarters as “ailing”, and has recently been in receipt of some £1.3 million of tax payers money from Cornwall County Council.

The attraction is one of the UK’s most popular but dozens of its staff have been made redundant, with falling attendances and financial losses in recent years.

In a statement, the local authority said it paid out £345,000 in direct funding, as well as contributing £815,108 via “third parties” and a further £194,833 for “everyday business”.

The recognisable biomes of the Eden Project

“Following investigation it would seem that three payments (totalling £205,000) were incorrectly posted in the accounts which led to them not being picked up in the report that populates the transparency report,” the council said in a statement. During this period the council was moving to a new financial management system, which may have caused this error for which we apologise.

However, although the three payments were not included in the transparency report, they would have been open to public inspection during the statutory 20-day period after the close of each year’s accounts.”

The figures were obtained by the Press Association under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.
Wanting to put a positive spin on what is essentially a rather downbeat position, an Eden Project spokesman said that the attraction has generated more than £1 billion for the wider Cornish economy and has been credited with creating 2,000 jobs elsewhere.

“It is correct that, since 2009, Eden has received £345,000 of grants directly from Cornwall Council to support the creation of new projects. We are grateful for this investment at a crucial time in our development but would like to make it clear that it would be fundamentally wrong to suggest that Eden is dependent on local authority funding. Since the project became active it has consistently generated more than 85% of its annual turnover from trading.”

Already the best part of twelve years old, the Eden Project was originally opened in March 2001, taking its place as one of the landmark projects to commemorate the new millennium. It is to be found in a former clay quarry in the Cornish countryside, and opened its doors to its one millionth visitor within a few months. As well as a tourist attraction, it sees itself very much as an educational venue.

High profile recent visitors have included the Prince of Wales, and you probably remember the Olympic Torch also stopping at the attraction as part of its tour of the UK in 2012. The venue, famed for its hexagonal-panelled “biomes”, has also attracted a succession of high-profile environmental guest speakers, as well as hosting concerts by the likes of Oasis, Mumford & Sons, Jessie J and Basement Jaxx.

                                                              The Eden Project Web Site