West End, Morecambe
Background
Situated on the Lancashire coast, five miles from Lancaster City Centre, Morecambe is typical of a seaside town which was prosperous in the inter and post-war years catering to the bed and breakfast holiday market, but which has declined steadily thereafter, with the advent of mass market foreign tourism.
Over the last five years Lancaster City Council has promoted a number of regeneration initiatives in a drive to revive visitor numbers and commissioned the Morecambe Resort Action Plan (2002), which recognised the future of Morecambe to be wider than tourism alone.
The town centre and the poor image of surrounding residential areas, particularly in the West End, were sited as key areas for action to enhance the resort as a place to visit, live, shop, work and spend leisure time.
The West End is a private housing area with a high proportion of private rented accommodation, dominated mainly by three to five storey houses originally built as guesthouses but now more likely to be used as houses in multiple occupation. The density of the area is high and concentrated with few areas of public/open space.
During the last ten years the West End area has benefited from designation as a Housing Renewal Area, with significant investment being made to improve the existing housing. Despite these improvements, the area still suffers from a complex set of social issues. These include a transient population, high levels of multiple deprivation and benefit dependency.
A key aspect of the Morecambe Resort Action Plan highlighted the need to regenerate the residential area of the West End, as an aid to supporting the regeneration efforts of the tourism product and town centre in Morecambe. The Action Plan recognised that due to the perception/image of the area and the lack of sites available for development, significant investment by the private sector would not take place without support from the public sector.
Throughout 2004, a number of Enquiry by Design workshops and public consultations were held, where a Vision and Spatial Masterplan was created and approved by the end of December 2004.
In 2004, English Partnerships became involved, providing funding for the West End Masterplan and Delivery Strategy, alongside supporting the Steering Group comprising the City Council, County Council, Housing Corporation, Adactus Housing Association, NWDA, the West End Partnership and appointed consultants; Business Design Planning.
Current status
The key objective of the Masterplan (which was adopted by the City Council in January 2005) aims to:
- restructure the housing market throughout the West End
- create confidence in the area; boosting the local economy and increasing local employment
- establish a sustainable balance of property types and tenure
Phase one of the plan has commenced. We are in the process of assembling a site for a high quality housing exemplar in the West End, working with the Housing Corporation and to procure a developer partner to deliver the scheme which will provide 103 new homes and help kick-start the regeneration of Morecambe.