IT AMOUNTED to Blackpool Council’s last stand. All or nothing. The unveiling of the grandest, most expensive project the town has ever seen, slated to revitalise and reinvigorate a central business district devoid of any viable business prospects. Today it was announced that funding for the Talbot Gateway project has been slashed by North West Development Agency bosses which could well spell the end for this maligned project.
In a 2007 Blackpool Task Force report signed by Cllr Peter Callow, it was trumpeted as a £310m project which was already ‘being delivered’ and had a timescale of 0-5 years. Just £10m of this money was to come from the NWDA with the rest being forecast by Callow as coming from private investors. By 2009 the project value had plummeted by 29% to £220m with the NWDA’s contribution doubling to £20m.
Just this week, following the Government’s announcement that it would no longer provide this £20m, Cllr Callow has announced that some elements of this project are going ahead regardless and that he hopes that these will provide a catalyst for further private investment. It’s a gamble, certainly, because if it doesn’t work, the area could remain a concrete graveyard for decades.
It’s not the only project under threat either: NWDA boss Steve Broomhead has penned a total of £52m of cuts which are spread across many projects within the North West and the Talbot Gateway isn’t the only one in Blackpool. The works at Manchester Square, Waterloo and St. Chad’s headlands, and phase 3 of the Central Corridor have also made their way onto Steve Broomhead’s hit list.
The Talbot Gateway would have encompassed the whole area surrounding Blackpool North station and included exuberant plans for four luxury hotels, a supermarket, a police station, a court, some town houses, apartments and a large glassy office block for council workers. The plan did fail on many parts, though, because it had very little benefit for local people and was built around giving council executives a new office five minutes down the road rather than providing a lasting regenerative effect to benefit local people.
Key issues such as education, health and business were ignored in the plans, yet two of the worst buildings in the town – the Talbot Road Bus Station and the Wilkinsons building – received a stay of execution. Suffice to say, what started out as grand plans have been withering away over the years as the money dried up, and todays announcement could easily lead to the project being scrapped altogether.
Indeed, local Labour leader Simon Blackburn called the project into question many times with his verbal assaults directed at the cash-happy Callow administration’s lack of focus and obsession with big capital projects. When the local infrastructure remains in ruins with pot holes still present after 7 months and the council complaining that it has no money to repair them, it’s hard to disagree.
The cut in funding for the headland works comes as a surprise, given that the work has already commenced.
We will bring you the latest news on the future of the Talbot Gateway project as it is released.
I shall try once again to comment having lost my super rant prior to the system going down some days ago – post lost – but here goes again.
Talbot Gateway has always been a thorn in my side since the announcement of such great ideas.
The amount of money poured down the drain on feasibility – consultation – draft designs – planning applications was always going to be badly thought out, and mainly a sound bite for the powers that be to make the township feel they could have confidence in the council.
Sadly from the above report it is now clear my views were not unfounded.
Once the (outline plans were produced) it was hyped that the scheme had funding and would proceed as soon as possible but without any substantial private funding and investment defined.
Lots of talk of the new police station / courts / hotel / retail / residential developments. but never any concrete commitments or press statements of who would be coming on board other than the chosen developer.
At the time I voiced my opinion on that controversial site (T.t.O) (disbanded) about the traffic problems that would be created during and on completion. and also had my say on “they work for you” But as usual no response.
I understand that with the effect of the current climate the scheme will be reduced but if the council had such a strong conviction that they could achieve such a large scale development, who has backed out of the development.
What really upsets me, Is when the Indoor Bowling Centre was set for closure (due to not being viable), I contacted the Property Dept to enquire what was going to happen to the premise, Due to having an interested client that had previously pulled out of Blackpool, Had asked me to locate a venue that would fit the business model and following external viewing was interested in purchase or long lease.
The response as expected was it was being demolished for the gateway project.
That national leisure chain could have been an opportunity and catalyst for other investments that piggy back nicely in existing operations throughout the country.
But hey ! Never mind they developed in Sunderland and Wrexham instead. (Both doing well) –
Thank you Blackpool BC.
So now we need to wait and see what rabbit’s will be pulled out of the *pie in the sky* Hat now !
I wait in hope that there is a solution.
Excellent comment Shoggy, but out of interest what is this ‘national leisure chain’ you speak of that moved to Wrexham and Sunderland, I am intrigued.
Tatbot gateway is to Callow as the casino was to Fisher.
Next election,hes out.
Personally I have mixed opinions on this situation. I am no fan of the NWDA, I feel it is a wasteful, costly bureaucratic quango and Broomhead is a textbook jobsworth, so I will be glad to see the back of it when it goes. But I must first say I don’t feel Labour leader Blackburn is any place to point fingers as his Labour lot and their supporters were all too keen to claim credit for Talbot Gateway. Yet now when it hits stormy seas, Labour supporter selective amnesia kicks in (no cure has been found yet) and the Labourites are out in their thousands to blame the Tories. However the matter in hand; when the Gasjet first published the massive ambitious features on ‘The Masterplan’ I was very impressed bar the casino (I never supported it). Talbot Gateway looked like a breath of fresh air, something Blackpool badly needs, a proper commerce sector providing better more highly-skilled jobs. I also liked the idea of the multi-screen cinema on top of the supermarket. But since then the project has been scaled back I don’t know how many times. The godawful eyesore that is Talbot Rd Bus Station and Wilkinsons survive, Prudential House is getting botox now rather than a proper facelift, the cinema has disappeared off the radar and the supermarket still has no operator lined up. I was also disappointed to discover that pretty much all the offices were going to be public sector. One of Blackpool’s big problems is an overreliance on public sector employment, we need more private sector professionals really. But the biggest problem of all is the ridiculous timescale. I remember back when the ‘Masterplan’ was announced Talbot Gateway was due to start on site in 2007 due for completion 2010-11. We are now fast approaching 2011 and we haven’t even started yet. It hasjust been a complete disaster
TB I have never had confidence in Callow,much as Fisher was a cretin,this guy is no different.The truth is this, when the council cant keep the infrastructure up to scratch, why would a private investor invest in a town that cant even sort out its roads?
Just to add, his rotten cronies have now signed away the moss,this man is a t*** and I challenge any true blue conservative to say otherwise,hes an absolute liability,Fisher mark 2.
I would like to see somebody younger and more dynamic as council leader, but not that smarmy Simon Blackburn. I never want to see a Labour council in Blackpool again. I wish we were more like Fylde where they elect independent councillors.
The you are looking at the lib dems,Bob Wynne?
Rob Wynne would be a fantasic Council Leader, great personality, popular, charismatic and a great councillor, but I feel he would decline on the basis of his business committments. I think Steven Bate or Jon Bamborough would be good if they got re-elected next May.
I agree with any of those names,Fleetwood fish park is losing funding.
There will be no electrification, no reopening of Fleetwood railway,no improvements to the A585,infrastructure wise we are screwed BIG TIME.We will fall behind another 10 years as before,as usual,the whole idea of regeneration on the fylde has been one long pie in the sky sick joke,artists impressions everywhere and that clot callow cant even keep the streets clean.Wait till the job cuts come in for the public sector.Managed DEGENERATION.Its over, all over.Meanwhile both Wyre and Blackpool councils just sanction the building of 100s of houses but no infrastructure improvements,years of congestion to look forward to,detering private investment.Callow,Fisher,Forsyth,Payne,Vincent,Mitchell,Fowler,Weaver, the list of names reads like the Nuremburg trials, these amoral feeble-minded idle shysters/crminal scum,what an execrable shower, they are all guilty of crimes and against the Fylde.
Cheer up chap’s “IT’S SUMMER”
lol, and I wanted to use my hosepipe……………
It’s obvious that none of the commentators here have ever tried to put together a 25 acre urban regeneration scheme in partnership with a local authority, in an economy that has been hit by the worst recession in 80 years, with commercial property values dropping by around 40% since the project was first put together.
Yet, it’s still going. The developer still spent his own money on achieving the Outline Planning Permission back in the spring and as far as I know has not indicated that he has any intention of pulling out of the scheme.
Let’s give them some credit. Many developers would have walked away years ago.
It’s still a scheme that won’t benefit the town, though, regardless of the money and expertise that has supposedly gone into it thus far.
look at other towns and cities and you will see why this council deseves no credit, well said Phil.