Call to end 'profligacy' as bill for resort regeneration nears £81m

A new report shows that 51m has been spent on Bridlington between 2004 and 2010, and another 30m is needed to finish the job off.

The plans propose selling three car parks in the town, including Hilderthorpe Coach Park, earmarked for an expanded Tesco, to help finance the wider plans.

The council is taking the lead on regeneration plans following the Government's announcement it will scrap the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, in favour of Local Enterprise Partnerships.

However, Coun Geoff Pickering claimed the project had not delivered over a decade of "artificial boom and high spending" and is "unlikely" to deliver now with public spending cutbacks.

Coun Pickering was commenting on a report to a meeting of the East Riding Council's Cabinet next week, which outlines some details of spending on the project.

"Commercially sensitive" elements are being discussed at a later part of the meeting, held behind closed doors.

The report says Hilderthorpe Coach Park is expected to be the first to be sold, followed by Palace Car Park and Langdale Wharf Car Park. The money would then go into the Bridlington Regeneration Reserve.

The report proposes using 230,000 a year from the reserve on the Bridlington Renaissance team, which has a full-time staff of six, one part-timer and a temporary worker yet to be recruited.

They also want to spend 100,000 on a business plan for the latest set of proposals for a Marina – on which huge amounts of public money have

been spent in the last decade.

Coun Pickering said he had written to the council's portfolio holder for economic development and regeneration, Coun Andy Burton, asking for more cost-effective ways of revamping the town.

He said: "If this is the reply I am appalled at the lack of understanding of how Bridlington works and the new economic realities we all face. We need work with local business and spend our money supporting them.

"This is not yet a credible plan – more like desperation to prop up a profligate project which has had its day."

Coun Pickering is convinced that moving the main shopping centre half-a-mile from the town centre will create an out-of-town shopping centre, leaving smaller retailers in the lurch.

He added: "We need to keep on investing but ensure that taxpayer's money spent on regeneration produces real results, not an army of managers, consultants and endless reports.

"The Yorkshire Forward gravy train has been stopped, but it looks like it is full steam ahead with the 'sub-quango' it spawned in Bridlington.

"Public money should only be used as a catalyst for private enterprise not a replacement for it.

"We have a terrific opportunity here, but moving the shoppers out and abandoning the existing town centre to fend for itself can only lead to its decline."

East Riding Council said there would be interim parking arrangements and when the regeneration scheme was complete, there would be an extra 700 car park spaces.

Director of planning and economic regeneration Alan Menzies said the "very substantial level of development" included the Spa's make-over, the Spa Environs scheme, the park and ride, improvements to public gardens and Chapel Street.

He said he believed the plans which would go to public inquiry next year were "deliverable, appropriate and can be resourced".

Mr Menzies said he accepted that 100,000 for a business plan seemed a lot of money, but they wanted the "best possible business case so once and for all we can promote the harbour jointly with the Harbour Commissioners and deliver it".