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£30m Prom plan put to the public
THE race is on for 2012! The public are set to be asked for their views on ambitious £30m plans to transform St Annes seafront in time for the return of golf's Open to the Fylde.
The proposals, which developers hope will create around 450 new jobs, could see two hotels, a 10-pin bowling centre, five cinema screens, winter garden and an aquarium built at The Island site.
If the scheme – which would be privately financed – gets the go-ahead developers hope it will be ready for the Open Golf championships taking place in the summer of 2012 at Royal Lytham.
As exclusively revealed in The Gazette in May, a five-star hotel planned on the site would have 100 rooms with an additional 60 rooms being built as part of a second three-star hotel.
A seven-storey hotel tower would provide an iconic seafront centrepiece. Two draft seafront masterplan schemes – showing both limited and major redevelopment of the Island site – were commissioned by Fylde Council.
The plans were presented to the authority by planning experts RPS for the first time on Thursday.
Nick Laister, senior planning director at the firm, said the scheme has been designed differently to Cleveleys seafront revamp which RPS regarded as a "missed opportunity".
Members of the public and councillors were given their chance to have a say on the scheme, which would include the St Annes swimming pool site – although its future has not yet been decided.
Coun Maxine Chew, Singleton, believes the modern development would put the resort's bid for "classic resort" status in peril.
She said: "The town is losing its Victorian heritage. Buildings are being replaced with square buildings with concrete and glass."
Ansdell councillor John Davies, was critical of suggestion to incorporate a golf museum into the plans.
He said: "It is amazing in a week in which we are closing a swimming pool to suggest a museum of golf. Surely we want to be encouraging people to play sports rather than watch them."
Suggestions from members of the public included scrapping the hotel plans and incorporating a pool with a retractable roof into the scheme.
Ansdell councillor Ben Aitken, wants the consultation to identify key facilities which should be included.
Proud
He said: "What we are trying to accomplish is to get a few ideas for something which we will be proud of. We will never be able to satisfy everybody. But we need to talk with everybody."
Following the consultation process and further meeting with bosses at The Island, who lease the site from the authority, a planning brief is due to be drawn up.
Paul Taylor, who owns the Island and set the 2012 target, said: "I think everybody wants consultation to take the project forward.
"It is very important that we get something which is sustainable and viable. It is about quality."
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Weather for Blackpool
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
