Resorts get £10m regeneration go ahead

Blackpool, Torbay and Dover’s plans to build and revamp visitor attractions will go ahead, after the coastal resorts secured £10m under the Government’s Sea Change initiative.


Torbay Council will launch a design tender early next year, when construction gets underway on plans drawn up by local architect Kay Elliot.


Local manor house Cockington Court will be transformed into a ‘cultural hub’ featuring galleries, workshops, studios and teaching facilities for emerging artists and makers.


Torbay will also refurbish the visitor centre at its English Riviera Geopark.


The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has also given the nod and £4m to Blackpool’s plans for a 20 000-capacity performance arena on the seafront, and to a redesign of its streetscape from the Tower to the headland.


Back in June, regeneration company ReBlackpool confirmed that the arena is likely to create work for branding and graphic design groups.


Once the grants are delivered in the autumn, Dover will install a £3.8m cable car from the Western Dock to Dover Castle.


These are the first grants to be awarded in the £45m, three-year Sea Change programme, which is being led by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.


Cabe chief executive Richard Simmons praises the three coastal resorts’ ‘fresh approach to the use of design and culture to aid regeneration’.


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