Bridlington: £200m proposal to regenerate resort finally given green light

After an 18-month public inquiry, Sian Worden judged East Riding council’s £200m redevelopment plans “sound” and plans for a 320-berth marina “aspirational but realistic”.

However she backed objections from the resort’s Harbour Commissioners, by removing the west end of the harbour from the plans for Burlington Parade.

Harbour Commissioners were so concerned they would be unable to operate the harbour effectively that they were ready to go to appeal.

Yesterday chairman George Traves said common sense had prevailed – although it had cost nearly £100,000 in legal fees.

“Yet again we have been successful in defending our estate. We have always argued robustly that the Bridlington area action plan was flawed in its original form and would cause wanton and needless destruction to one of the most lucrative industries in the town,” he said.

In her report, Ms Worden said there was “a significant risk that such development (on the harbour top) would jeopardise the future of the harbour, a disadvantage which would evidently outweigh the benefits it would bring to the town centre”.

However she agreed the plans for the rest of Burlington Parade, a large mixed-use retail, housing and leisure development, which would see an enlarged Tesco, and a 700-space car park, built next door to its old site on the town’s coach park.

The plans foresee the Gypsey Race – now a “somewhat forlorn backwater” – opened up to create a landscaped park and pedestrian route which would link the new shopping area, with the existing town centre and harbour.

She said: “It will also be the focus for much of the new development including housing and, all in all, is a clever response to a previously overlooked opportunity.”

The marina – a project first envisaged 40 years ago – is also back on the agenda, although doubts remain about its in a recession.

Ms Worden said: “As the council itself accepts, marinas are notoriously complex projects and uncertainty as to its construction will remain until preparatory arrangements, permissions and works are well advanced.”

However, she said, when the economy improved it was likely the marina would be “viable... particularly with the Burlington Parade proposal awakening investment interest in the town.”

John Lister, head of Bridlington Renaissance Partnership, said: “We are happy with what we got to be perfectly frank. We see the reason why the inspector has done what she has done to protect our interests on Burlington Parade. Ninety-nine per cent of what we could have done on the harbour top can be done within the marina policy at a later date.

“She appreciates that the council has negotiated extensively with interests in the harbour, but given that there’s still a risk of an agreement not being made, it could put at risk the whole of the development of the Burlington Parade part of the scheme, and that part delivers the real benefits and jobs to Bridlington.”

The new Tesco store, he said, would have to be built first, and the hotel, which would have been on the harbour top, would now probably go elsewhere.

The council now owns 44 properties in the area. Mr Lister said: “It isn’t something that the council will go out and build, we have to attract developers and sell the plots. We will next looking for an outline planning application, which will be early next year.”

Coun Michael Charlesworth, Mayor of Bridlington, said: “We have made objections as publicly as we can and we are disappointed that we have not been listened to, apart from on the harbour top. The inspector also shares our opinion that the funfair would be better sited elsewhere. This plan will certainly change the town, but I doubt it will be for the better.”