Surf statue consultation sees 400 supporters

Image source, Keogh Foundation

Image caption, The bronze surfer statue will mark 60 years of surfing and its industry in Newquay
At a glance
  • More than 400 people support plans for a sculpture in Newquay celebrating surfing, a town council committee hears
  • The Keogh Foundation wants to donate a 5m-tall, 拢100,000 sculpture to mark 60 years of the sport and its industry in the area
  • Those behind the project said they were 鈥渒een to give back" to the sport and the town

Plans to erect a sculpture in Newquay celebrating surfing have been supported in a consultation.

The Keogh Foundation wants to donate a 5m (16ft) tall sculpture, showing a bronze surfer riding a wave to mark 60 years of surfing and the industry in the area.

A Newquay Town Council committee meeting was told last week a council consultation saw 220 objections to the plans, but 407 people agreed with it being erected in the Killacourt area.

The project is due to be discussed at a meeting of the full council next month.

Publicity 'worth 拢500k'

The consultation suggested siting the 拢100,000 statue in the Killacourt area, overlooking Towan beach.

Currently town council conditions prevent it being put up, but amendments to those conditions were to be debated by the full council on 7 September, the .

Stuart and Cherry Keogh, of the charitable foundation, said they were supporting the project because they were 鈥渒een to give back to both the sport, and to Newquay" as both had supported their "success in life鈥.

The couple first moved to Newquay around the same time as the surfing trend took off in the area in the 1960s.

They went on to set up several surf-related businesses.

Malcolm Bell, of Visit Cornwall, said such a statue could provide the equivalent of 拢500,000 a year of publicity to the town, adding to the 拢130m to 拢150m a year the sport already generated.

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