The Central Promenade Site

[Editor]

Plans to redevelop Morecambe's Central Promenade site were submitted
late 2007 by Urban Splash, but were not available to view fully until
mid 2008. This has only given the public a short time to view and
comment on what could be one of the resorts' biggest and controversial
developments in recent years.

The Architectural firm FLACQ originally won an architectural
competition on how to develop the promenade site in 2006.

Since then there have been only two public consultations on the plans.
One, for the public to see and comment on the original six finalists
and a second after the competition to comment on Urban Splash and
FLACQ's new plans for the site.

It is clear from what was submitted in the original competition that
what is proposed now very different from what has been submitted in
their recent planning application.

What we have now are six fingered blocks. These mostly rise at four
floors from the promenade to heights of six to eight floors at the
sea. The first two blocks in Phase I start at four floors from the
ground, next to the Midland, and six at the rear. This makes them
higher than the current Midland Hotel, and these are the smallest
blocks! Apart from the way they fan out from the promenade the blocks
bare very little resemblance to their original proposals.

The original tourist attraction, now referred to as the 'Summer
Garden' seems to have shrunk in size considerably and is more angular
in design than their original.

The bulk of the development is actually residential with apartments
and studio flats (bed-sits) occupying five of the fingered blocks.
These number about 380 units in total. The sixth block is thought to
be a new 130 bed hotel.

So far, a large number of objections have been submitted to the
Lancaster City Council concerning the plans.

It should also be noted that at the original consultation showing the
six finalists, this scheme was not the public's most popular choice.
One also has to wonder if the six finalists were the six of the best.
About a hundred different proposals were originally submitted and many
of these can still be found on the Internet.