Does Gordon Ramsay’s Cornish fishing village Rock – where average house prices are £1.2 million – really need a £600k levelling-up grant?

It’s a playground for millionaires, a celebrity favorite, Royal houses and hordes of super-rich second home owners.

That’s why some locals are questioning why Cornwall Council has given the villages of Rock and St Minver a taxpayer-funded leveling grant of £600,000.

The seaside hotspot, where average property prices rose to £1.2 million last year, has been given the windfall to build a new community centre.

The Government’s Leveling Up Fund should benefit Britain’s poorest areas.

But the pretty fishing village of Rock is one of the most expensive places in the country to buy property.

Local residents are questioning why Cornwall Council has given the villages of Rock and St Minver a £600,000 taxpayer-funded leveling grant

Homeowners include chef Gordon Ramsay, who has a £5 million mansion overlooking the sea

The wealthy are drawn to the secluded coves, well-stocked delicatessen shops and chic restaurants, including Rick Stein’s The Seafood Restaurant across the Camel Estuary in Padstow.

Princes William and Harry have been photographed surfing in nearby Polzeath.

Homeowners include chef Gordon Ramsay, who has a £5 million mansion overlooking the sea, Fifty Shades Of Gray author EL James, who bulldozed a bungalow to build a £2 million pile on a cliff to build, and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, who paid £2 million for a holiday home in a nearby village.

The £600,000 government grant was awarded following an application from the St Minver Community Hub Trust to replace huts used by local scout groups and football teams.

The group had already raised £300,000 from donations to start building work.

Last night, baffled locals wondered why they qualified for the grant.

Margaret Marshall, 86, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years, said: ‘Do we really need it?

‘I understand why locals think other parts of Cornwall need more leveling up.

“Another longtime resident Patricia Core said, “This is just not right. Other parts of Cornwall need much more facilities.

“If they want to level us up, get us housing we can afford or a doctor’s office we can get to.”

The seaside hotspot, where average property prices rose to £1.2m last year, has been given the windfall to build a new community center (pictured)

However, some residents have defended the decision, saying: ‘We’re not all millionaires here’

One woman, who asked not to be named, said she was ‘absolutely stunned’ by the £600,000 grant, while another described it as a ‘vanity project’.

Residents pointed out that there were already numerous public buildings serving the community.

However, Maureen Dodd, 87, defended the plans for a new building, saying: ‘It will be great for children and they have included a cafe where older people can meet.

‘We’re not all millionaires here. We are just ordinary people who have worked for a living.”

The government’s £4.8 billion Leveling Up Fund was launched in 2020 to improve infrastructure in Britain’s poorest areas.

Local authorities were tasked with awarding grants to areas ‘most in need’, based on factors such as economic recovery and growth, transport links and the need for regeneration.

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly councils were given £137 million to hand out to community organisations.

Some parts of Cornwall are among the poorest in Britain. According to government figures, around a third of children under the age of 15 in Penzance Quay are growing up in poverty.

Rock is Britain’s third most expensive village, with house prices almost three times higher than the Cornish average

But Rock is Britain’s third most expensive village, with house prices almost three times higher than the average for Cornwall, according to estate agents Yopa.

Last night a council spokesman said: ‘The impression of the area from the outside is of luxury homes on the seafront, but people don’t see the deprivation a few meters away.’

She said the new building will replace “outdated” wooden huts and provide “a wide range of much-needed facilities and activities, targeted at those most in need in the community.”