THERE is fresh hope that the failed Heartlands mining attraction in mid-Cornwall will now reopen as the National Trust has been approved as its new long-term operator.

Cornwall Council is due to sign off an agreement with the trust next week which is likely to see the heritage charity sign a 30-year lease agreement to run the site at Pool, between Redruth and Camborne.

Around 40 employees were given just one month’s notice to find new jobs when the mining heritage centre closed in January 2024.

The sad news came after the Heartlands Trust, which ran the site under a lease from the site’s landlord Cornwall Council, announced that the majority of facilities on the £35-million site had become financially unsustainable. The Heartlands Trust entered voluntary liquidation in March 2024.

The National Lottery Community Fund, which had been the attraction’s biggest benefactor, revealed it had pulled its funding, saying Heartlands had become unsustainable and “we have a responsibility to ensure public money is well spent, which is why we have had to make this difficult decision”.

Heartlands originally received £22-m from the Big Lottery Fund, the biggest grant it had given to a single project in England at the time, with Cornwall Council and the European Union also providing funding.

The popular Red River Café, Wheal Play soft play centre, a conference centre and meeting rooms all closed in January 2024, but the adventure playground, gardens, independent shops and offices remained open. Traders told us at the time of their shock, anger and heartbreak at the closures.

The council took on day-to-day management of the site, but undertook a process to find a long-term operator, which has led to the National Trust being chosen to take on a 30-year lease. It includes a break clause after five years enabling the trust to bring the lease to an end if required.

The agreement is due to be signed off by Cornwall Council’s cabinet member for tourism, localism and planning, Cllr Sarah Preece, at a meeting next Wednesday (February 25).

The 20-acre site is home to Robinson’s Engine House and is a gateway to the ten dispersed mining districts that make up the Cornwall and West Devon Mining World Heritage Site, the largest industrial World Heritage Site in the UK.

A spokesperson for the trust, which has yet to sign the lease, said: “The National Trust, in collaboration with Cornwall Rural Community Charity (CRCC) and Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum (VSF), has entered a new phase of discussions with Cornwall Council.

“These discussions aim to explore the potential for the National Trust to take on the operational management of Heartlands, a significant cultural heritage and community site in Cornwall. It is a complex site and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue discussions and work towards a hopeful outcome.”

The trust revealed last month that as part of the charity’s national plans for 2026 it was its intention to take on the operational management of Heartlands in “its latest action to protect national heritage alongside widening communities’ access to it”.

There were initially four expressions of interests to run Heartlands. A council report states: “The council evaluated those bids and concluded that only two bidders indicated the expertise and capacity to be a long-term operator of the site.

“The second round which included site inspections, exchange of relevant data and requests for information concluded with a business case application by the two parties.

“The National Trust have evidenced that they were the strongest bidder for the site. The council has engaged in detailed negotiations with them leading to the proposed lease terms.”

The council will retain responsibility for the management of “core utility infrastructure”, residential accommodation and the management of the “overarching cost recovery arrangements”.

The site has been split into three separate leases – the main site (including the park, gardens and heritage structures), the commercial spaces and the Basset Centre (a vacant commercial building separated from main site).

The council has allocated £450,000 from its capital programme to improve and protect structures at Heartlands and to support the National Trust’s development of the site.

The council will also work with the the trust and the National Lottery team to agree how unspent community lottery funding can be utilised to provide new activity at Heartlands.