Multi-million pound approvals for resort

An artist's impression of Blackpool's new police headquarters

The council’s planning committee gave the go ahead for a £21m police station on Clifton Road, Marton, a replacement pumping station at Anchorsholme Park, an extension to the Sands venue on Central Promenade to create a 96-bedroom hotel, and the construction of 118 houses on the National Savings site on Mythop Road, Marton.

But proposals to demolish hotels on South Promenade and replace them with 99 apartments were put on hold for the time being.

Councillors said the blueprints submitted with the application did not sufficiently demonstrate the massing of the £7m proposed scheme which would be five to seven storeys high.

The National Savings building in Marton which is set to be demolished

Objectors had called for the plan, which would see the Kimberley, Waldorf and Henderson hotels demolished, to be thrown out amid concerns over the height of the building and fears it would overshadow their homes.

Margaret Harrison, representing residents, said parking was also an issue in the area.

She told the committee: “Tourist parking is a major problem in the area, it won’t absorb any extra car parking from this development.”

Miss Harrison acknowledged action was needed to improve that part of South Promenade but she added: “For the last eight years we have waited for a sensible solution to the problem, whether it is residential or holiday accommodation, but this is not it.”

The committee agreed to defer the application to a future meeting so they could be shown clearer details on the proximity of the development to existing homes.

No objections were made at the meeting to the extension of the Sands to form a hotel and an outline application was approved, with detailed designs set to come forward at a later date.

A new police headquarters to replace the outdated base on Bonny Street was also approved without any objections.

But residents did speak out against proposals for houses and offices on the National Savings site, and against some of the changes to facilities at Anchorsholme Park made necessary through the construction of a new pumping station.

But the committee agreed both proposals should go ahead.