Sale plans for Central Station site on agenda at Blackpool Council

The authority has been tied into an exclusivity agreement with an unnamed investor since March 2016.

Full details of the scheme are currently still under wraps, with documents remaining confidential due to containing commercially sensitive information.

The executive is being recommended to agree the adoption of a proposed masterplan for the 17 acres of land, now known as Blackpool Central.

Further recommendations include the setting up of a Blackpool Central Project Board including council leader Coun Simon Blackburn, chief executive Neil Jack, other senior council officers and the developer.

This would monitor and track progress “in matters and decisions relating to the land sale.”

A report to the executive says: “In March 2016 the council entered into an exclusivity agreement with the developer who had expressed an interest in purchasing the site and who had plans to develop a high quality all-year round attraction based on a proposal to create a new leisure destination within Blackpool.”

It adds the site is “pivotal to Blackpool’s regeneration ambitions” and “presents a unique opportunity for a multi-million phased redevelopment to provide a new, exciting and unique tourist destination”.

The site was cleared in the 1960s following the closure of Central Station, and has since been used as a car park.

The former police station on the land is set to be handed over to the council for demolition following the relocation of the police to a new station on Clifton Road, Marton.

A feasability study to relocate the courts building is currently underway.

Previous regeneration projects for the land have included a snow-based attraction and a super-casino.