Voting began yesterday to find the winner of a £50 million handout from the People's Lottery. The Western Morning News is unashamedly backing the Eden Project, where plans for a new building to raise awareness of climate change is on the drawing board.
We urge all out readers to register online at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk and cast their vote for Eden's the Edge.
It is not just that the creation of a building to encourage urgent action on climate change is a good idea, although that is certainly the case. It is also important that Eden - one of the wonders of the modern world and a great asset to the Westcountry - continually innovates and improves if it is to remain a powerhouse for the region's tourist economy.
There are, we know, critics of the Eden Project. Some believe it has already recieved too many public handouts; some don't like the fact that it has brought more visitors to Cornwall and some simply like to knock success. We accept those points of view and - in recent weeks - we have published letters from a number of critics of Eden and its bid for more funing. But we believe they are wrong.
To those who say the money already gifted to Eden could have been better spent - upgrading Cornwall fire service or investing in the Royal Cornwall Hospital, for example - we say that was simply not an option. The money Eden has had was never going to be made available for such purposes. Better to have it spent in Cornwall on a tourist attraction and research facility than sent off somewhere else, with no benfit to our region at all.
And exactly that argument applies now, at the start of public voting in the People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway. It is no good at all complaining that this is money that could be better spent. That is not necessarily true, given the longer-term benefits that could accrue from the Edge. But it is also a pointless argument, since the use to which the funds can be put is not going to change. Better, by far, for this cash to come to the Westcountry, where Eden's track record makes it likely it will be put to spectacular use, than see it disappear to another region of Britain where - to be frank - the projects are far less imaginative and the benefit won't be felt anything like so keenly.
The People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway is a unique opportunity for a really sizable sum of money to be spent on a substantial project that the public genuinely wants to see. The Edge at Eden is in the right place and at the right time and richly deserves this investment. We know the money will be put to very good use, not just for Cornwall and the wider Westcountry - but for the world. Please, please, take the trouble to vote.
