A visitor centre, surf history museum, changing rooms and training facilities are being built on what was once a car park.

There will also be a beach cafe, restaurant, creche and hire centre.

Karen Walton of the British Surfing Association (BSA), which will be based at the centre, said: "Fistral has by far the best and most consistent waves in the country, but at the moment there is absolutely nothing else there.

Fistral is one of the UK's top surfing beaches

"Last year there wasn't even a cafe - we had two portable catering units.

"It is a very, very popular beach in Cornwall and it hasn't really been catering for the number of people who go down and visit it."

Work on the centre started last month following months of discussions between developer Britannic Industries and Restormel council over the terms of a 125-year lease.

The council will receive £13,800 per year rent for the land.

Public access will be free at all times.

Ian Rigby, head of economic development at Restormel Borough Council, said the new centre would be one of the best in Europe.

Reef plan

"In UK terms this will definitely be the biggest and the best.

"There are other beach-front centres in this country, but this one is purely for surfing," he said.

"We want to attract world-class surfing competitions which we hadn't been able to do before because the facilities were just an embarrassment."

A separate scheme to build a new offshore reef to generate better surfing waves off Newquay will be a further boost to the resort.