Blackpool Tower to be sold???

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Blackpool Tower to be sold???

Postby Gary » 03 Dec 2009, 15:20

From Propert Week 3/12/09:

Blackpool Council has made a bid to buy Blackpool Tower, The Winter Gardens, The Golden Mile Centre and Louis Tussauds from entrepreneur Trevor Hemmings’ Leisure Parcs.

The offer is reliant of the council sourcing funding from the European Regional Development Fund – which gave the council a provisional indication to go ahead with the bidding process.

Blackpool Council hopes that the money granted from this fund could potentially be matched by a package of public funding and used to acquire the assets.

The council said that the offer came on the back of recommendations made in Sir Howard Bernstein’s report on the regeneration of the town after the casino bid was unsuccessful.

Bernstein called for consideration to be made of the private leisure assets within the resort and how they can attract funding to boost their regeneration.

By bringing the assets into the public sector it said they could benefit from allocations of heritage funding that could not be accessed by Private sector owners.

John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities, said: "Blackpool is a seaside town close to the nation's heart and securing its most iconic buildings is a vital part of its future.

"When I was there in October, signing their Multi-Area Agreement giving Blackpool new powers to mastermind regional solutions, I was delighted to see the progress that has already been made, in part by funding we pledged in response to the Blackpool Taskforce report that started all this off."

While a long term plan for the running and development of them is prepared Leisure Parcs will continue to run the sites.

If the bid is successful the transaction would have to be agreed by the end of the financial year. A decision will be made on the funding in the New Year.

Doug Garrett, chief executive of ReBlackpool, said: “The Tower and Winter Gardens have been attracting tourists to Blackpool for more than 100 years.

“By bringing them into public ownership we can ensure they benefit from the additional funding which may be available for their development and making them a platform for the resort to build on and around for the next 100 years.

Councillor Peter Callow, leader of Blackpool Council, said: “If we can access the extra funding, we can protect the public’s interest in them and turn these attractions into something that can last well into the twenty first century.

“This is still at the very early stage of the process and there is a great deal of work that needs to be done to secure the funding but what it does show is the Council’s ambition for Blackpool’s future.”

Read more: http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?s ... z0YdeeVaLu

Gary

PS..The Pleasure Beach is privately owned isn't it???..... Hmmm... Don't get me started..
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Postby EAS » 03 Dec 2009, 21:31

Indeed PBB is owned privately...

But it's all rather visionary; however, yes, it could attract funding, if trusts etc were set up.

A lot to take on though...
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