Funding boost for Eden

The third biome should open in 2005

A world-famous tourist attraction in Cornwall has received a £10m boost.

The Eden Project near St Austell has received the grant from the Millennium Commission.

Eden attracted more than £40 million in lottery grant funding to enable it to grow into the major attraction it has become.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors have passed through the turnstiles since Eden opened in 2001, but numbers have been falling.

So plans are being drawn up for a third biome.

The third giant greenhouse - a dry tropics biome - is planned to open in 2005.

And now this latest grant from the Millennium Commission will enable a new education centre to be opened on the site.

Tim Smit, Eden's chief executive, said: "It's a tremendous endorsement of the last two years.

"We are thrilled. In fact it's recaptured the spirit that we had at the beginning of the project and put champagne in our veins again."