Amidst the gloom of the Corus announcement Redcar’s plans to regenerate its promenade and seafront area appear to be falling into place. Funding for the £30m project is now almost complete and there’s every chance that work will begin in the Summer.The project is being supported by Redcar and Cleveland Council and the Environment Agency with backing from One North East.The centre piece for the revamp will be an 80 feet Vertical Pier. It will be built on land where a demolished nightclub once stood and it will provide a range of amenities including performance space, café, seaside shop, and exhibition space. The plans include images being projected from the tower on to the sands below.Despite having an excellent beach and nature area, Redcar’s Seafront and Town Centre area has declined rapidly in recent years. After planning permission was granted to build two Supermarkets, Morrisons and Tesco, the fortunes of the town’s High Street plummeted. It is now filled with a depressing combination of Takeaways, Pound Shops, Charity Shops and empty properties.If this sounds familiar then you are probably thinking of the long-standing complaint over the poor maintenance and neglect of our own ‘seaside resort’ , Seaton Carew. That neglect eventually led, amongst other things, to the demolition of the North Shelter on safety grounds. To be fair, anyone who has visited Redcar recently will know that Seaton has not yet reached the same level of decay as its neighbour. In addition, local protests did eventually trigger the refurbishment of the bus station and clock tower at Seaton which for a long time looked as if they would go the same way as the North Shelter.There have been several studies into the possible regeneration of Seaton Carew initiated by the local council and others though none seem to have benefited from the the obvious ambition of their Redcar counterparts. In the most recent study, the conclusion was that regeneration of the resort should centre around the construction of a Geletaria or ice-cream parlour to be located on land formerly occupied by the fairground.In truth, this is a prime example of how the lack of joined-up thinking has cursed the town of Hartlepool for decades. Building a brand new Geletaria at a time when the Longscar Hall complex remains derelict and unused will appear to many to be completely absurd. In addition, the struggling fortunes of recent enterprises such as Sinatra’s Bar and its neighbouring Fish & Chip Restaurant demonstrate the risks of half-hearted regeneration.Redcar seems to have understood this. The sheer scale of its £30m regeneration plans simply dwarf any proposals for Seaton put forward by the local authority. Indeed, the fact that Hartlepool is, in fact, a coastal town, cannot be guaranteed to have been absorbed by all of the inhabitants of the town’s Civic Centre.It will be interesting to see how Redcar’s regeneration plans progress over the next few years particularly against the economic backdrop the town now faces. I wish them well.Redcar’s £30m Seafront Revamp Shows Seaton the Waycontactssite mapwrite for us
Amidst the gloom of the Corus announcement Redcar’s plans to regenerate its promenade and seafront
area appear to be falling into place. Funding for the £30m project is now almost complete and there’s every
chance that work will begin in the
Summer.
The project is being supported by Redcar
and Cleveland Council and the
Environment Agency with backing from
One North East.
The centre piece for the revamp will be
an 80 feet Vertical Pier. It will be built on
land where a demolished nightclub once
stood and it will provide a range of
amenities including performance space,
café, seaside shop, and exhibition space.
The plans include images being projected
from the tower on to the sands below.
Despite having an excellent beach and nature area, Redcar’s Seafront and Town Centre area has declined
rapidly in recent years. After planning permission was granted to build two Supermarkets, Morrisons and
Tesco, the fortunes of the town’s High Street plummeted. It is now filled with a depressing combination of
Takeaways, Pound Shops, Charity Shops and empty properties.
If this sounds familiar then you are probably thinking of the long-standing complaint over the poor
maintenance and neglect of our own ‘seaside resort’ , Seaton Carew. That neglect eventually led, amongst
other things, to the demolition of the North Shelter on safety grounds. To be fair, anyone who has visited
Redcar recently will know that Seaton has not yet reached the same level of decay as its neighbour. In
addition, local protests did eventually trigger the refurbishment of the bus station and clock tower at Seaton
which for a long time looked as if they would go the same way as the North Shelter.
There have been several studies into the possible regeneration of Seaton Carew initiated by the local
council and others though none seem to have benefited from the the obvious ambition of their Redcar
counterparts. In the most recent study, the conclusion was that regeneration of the resort should centre
around the construction of a Geletaria or ice-cream parlour to be located on land formerly occupied by the
fairground.
In truth, this is a prime example of how the lack of joined-up thinking has cursed the town of Hartlepool for
decades. Building a brand new Geletaria at a time when the Longscar Hall complex remains derelict and
unused will appear to many to be completely absurd. In addition, the struggling fortunes of recent
enterprises such as Sinatra’s Bar and its neighbouring Fish & Chip Restaurant demonstrate the risks of
half-hearted regeneration.
Redcar seems to have understood this. The sheer scale of its £30m regeneration plans simply dwarf any
proposals for Seaton put forward by the local authority. Indeed, the fact that Hartlepool is, in fact, a coastal
town, cannot be guaranteed to have been absorbed by all of the inhabitants of the town’s Civic Centre.
It will be interesting to see how Redcar’s regeneration plans progress over the next few years particularly
against the economic backdrop the town now faces. I wish them well.
Redcar’s £30m Seafront Revamp
Shows Seaton the Way
contacts site map write for us
