THE air is sweet around the entrance to the new Boscawen Park Pavilion between Truro and Malpas. It resembles the tantalising smell of sugary doughnuts, turning my thoughts to coffee and what the café is baking on the other side of the park.

Ironically, it turns out to be the resinous fragrance of the new larch cladding that covers the whole of the outside of this hub dedicated to healthier pursuits. The keys were handed over at the end of August, and I’m here for a tour with Truro City Council town clerk David Rodda and centre manager Katie Wilding.

“We were trying to create a multi-use new facility for Truro: a combination of health, education and environment,” says David. “Lots of places can do this sort of thing, but in educational establishments you can’t get in until the school day has ended, and rarely during the holidays.”

We start with the main sports hall, cavernous and blue with basketball and netball hoops in the corner. This can be rented by the hour to sports groups, but also to individuals wishing to play a match with a friend. “We set the room up, and we have a lot of the equipment, so they just turn up and play.” Prices range from £7.50 for table tennis to £15 for basketball and badminton; hese are set at a level deemed “appropriate and not overpriced for community use”, to be reviewed after nine months.”

The space is multi-functional, with chairs currently laid out for a meeting or talk. The hall has a maximum capacity of 140, and Slimming World has already signed up, with sessions taking place on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Kenwyn Community Association will host a charity quiz night here on Thursday, October 3 in aid of Children’s Hospice South West, with pasties from Cornish Oven.

These will doubtless be warmed and served from the shiny new kitchen next door. This can be used by anyone with the relevant food safety qualifications, from parents wanting team and coffee while watching kids play football, to full-on catering for events – staff from Café in the Park are also available for the latter. Kitchen-table companies can also rent it for the day.

Further along the corridor are the changing rooms, complete with showers. “The existing facilities date from the 1960s and were functional, but their use-by date probably expired some time ago,” admits David. “Now we have separate rooms for visiting officials, and accessible rooms fitted with hoists, which is a first.”

Upstairs, a room with a big window overlooks the sports hall and a wide screen TV suitable for activities including film nights. Another room has a sprung floor for high-impact activities, while a cupboard reveals weights, yoga mats and steps.

“We don’t want to compete with or take trade away from existing facilities,” says David. “There are already plenty of gyms and places hosting business meetings. This is a different feel, and there are things we don’t do - there are no spin bikes here.”

The delight is often in the detail, from the Cornish language signs on every door in keeping with councillors’ commitment to promoting Kernewek, to the vending machine offering goods with minimal single-use plastic.

Outdoor surfaces now match the quality of the indoor facilities. Once the site of a Victorian dump, football pitch conditions were often boggy in winter due to ineffective drainage. Following an extensive upgrade, park ground maintenance machinery accessed the field for the first time last winter, without fear of churning or sinking. “It’s now up to English Football Championship League standards,” said David. The petanque pitch, popular with twinning associations and the U3A, has also been revamped.

A large area facing the road, where the city council’s polytunnels used to be here, is being grassed. “People ask why we didn’t build on it and make the centre bigger, but you have to factor in tree root zones and drip length of canopy,” David explains. “Instead, we are hoping to increase biodiversity net gain through landscaping, and there will be benches, outdoor chess sets – the park is there for all, but not everyone wants to spend money, and you don’t have to.”

Parking remains limited to roadside and Boscawen Park, with a small area under development for disabled and electric vehicles. Electric bike lockers have been provided.

The centre is staffed by general manager Katie Wilding, former deputy manager at the tourist information centre in Boscawen Street, and her assistant Willow Birchmore, whose experience includes a stint at the Sir Ben Ainslie centre at Truro School.

“It’s really exciting now – we just want to get the people in,” says Katie. “People walking dogs have been watching it go up over the last year. They have come in and had a look, and are thrilled with it – they say it’s ‘exactly what Truro needs’.

“The feedback and comments on what they’d like for the future of the building helped me develop customer need – our primary objective is to provide a facility that community will use and enjoy.” Adds David: “It needs to be used because it has to pay its running costs.”

Which brings us onto brass tacks: this is a £5.2m project, the vast amount of which has come from the Truro Town Deal government funding pot, with £110,000 contributed by Truro City Council and £66,000 by Cornwall Council. Further park works have included resurfacing and fencing the riverside walk, with the dredging of the duck pond due later this year.

While an initial vision for the centre had a winter garden and was more of a tourist attraction in feel, “it was very expensive and had to be scaled back,” says David. “This is a facility that we could build within the space and budget constraints we have – and it’s a facilities to be proud of.”

The Pavilion is open from Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm and on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 6pm. Book through the Truro City Council website, or email [email protected].