David Quinn | Writer, journalist and filmmaker based in Manchester

Government plays a dud hand
Estates Gazette
26/04/2008

Government funding has fallen short, so how will Blackpool’s regeneration chief Doug Garrett redevelop? By David Quinn

When is a £300m government funding package not a £300m government funding package? The answer can be found in Blackpool, buried in the debris of the government’s abandoned policy on supercasinos.

Scrabble around in the wreckage, and the headline figure of £300m promised by the government in response to the Blackpool Task Force is not all that it seems. For once all the money that has previously been announced by the government is taken out of the equation, Blackpool is actually left with no more than £50m.

That, at least, is the view of Doug Garrett, the highly experienced, straight-talking and – one has to assume – deeply patient chief executive of the ReBlackpool urban regeneration company.

“If you look at the figures, £100m is Building Schools for the Future money, which has already been rolled out nationally. £100m is for transportation – the guts of it to do with the tramway – which had already been announced. £87m is for the sea defence scheme – and that’s been under construction for two years,” he says.

“There is £35m in relation to new housing, which is new and is welcome – but won’t touch the amount that’s needed.”

Persistent drizzle

An estimated £4m will be added to the coffers as part of separate government “Sea Change” funding for coastal towns, announced earlier this month. Overall, though, the situation remains as frustrating as the persistent drizzle that ruins EG’s spring day trip to Blackpool.

Nonetheless, Belfast-born Garrett is looking on the bright side. “This money isn’t a final offer. It’s a case of saying how the government can work with us further. There are possibilities and positives around new employment. Hazel Blears MP is looking at quarterly reviews.”

Lancashire agents are also staying cautiously positive. “It’s not as gloomy as predictions first suggested at the start of the year and, although government funding may have slowed down, private investment is continuing to roll in,” says Danny Pinkus, partner at Preston-based Robert Pinkus & Co. “The outlook for Blackpool is looking rosy as long as regeneration stays focused.”

The Blackpool Task Force, led by Blears as secretary of state for communities and local government, was formed in March 2007 following the decision of the Casino Advisory Panel two months earlier to recommend Manchester – not Blackpool – for the UK’s sole supercasino.

Garrett now admits that, in hindsight, Blackpool could never have landed the supercasino. The criteria the CAP was given by the government focused on social effects. As the only town in the eight-strong shortlist comprised otherwise of cities, Blackpool did not have a large enough resident population to become a reliable testing ground.

Garrett reveals that, prior to the sudden death last December of Professor Stephen Crow, the planning inspector who chaired the independent panel, Crow admitted as much to him.

“It was flawed legislation and a flawed approach,” Garrett says of the Gambling Act and subsequent supercasino beauty parade. “It was very badly handled, and it has produced a rather ridiculous situation.”

The government’s response to the Blackpool Task Force, of which ReBlackpool was a member, was published in February, on the same day Manchester’s supercasino was finally killed off.

It compensated Blackpool for the botched process and specified the need to improve the resort’s visitor offer, to serve a niche in the conference market and to improve the quality and mix of housing.

ReBlackpool, set up in 2005 in order to attract £1.6bn of investment to the town, shares these aims and remains focused on delivering its own masterplan, originally published in 2003.

One aspect of the plan was the creation of a supercasino, conference and leisure facilities on a 24-acre site that formerly housed the town’s Central Station. Garrett does not believe this focus on gambling renders the plan obsolete, however.

“The masterplan will be adapted, but we won’t be throwing it out and starting again. It’s not the gambling floorspace that’s important. It’s about retail malls and leisure attractions.It was that mix that we saw coming in,” he says.

Leisure quarter

The Central Station site occupies a plum location at the heart of the Golden Mile – a fact that Garrett points out as he weaves his 4×4 through the site’s surface-level car park. Central Station is still earmarked for development as a conference and leisure quarter and, elsewhere in town, a number of other regeneration projects are already taking shape (see panel).

Pinkus believes Central Station is crucial to Blackpool’s future. “One of Blackpool’s main concerns will be how to use the site that was earmarked for the casino,” he says.

“Talk of a new state-of-the-art conference centre will be an excellent and much-needed investment for Blackpool’s future. Quality investment across sectors, including retail, hotel and leisure, is required in order to increase Blackpool’s year-round appeal, and maybe even entice the political conferences back to the promenade.”

Given that Blackpool is home to the Big One – one of the tallest amusement rides in the world – Garrett cannot resist comparing Blackpool’s recent ups and downs with those of a roller coaster. However, he retains a pragmatic approach in the face of Blackpool’s malaise.

“The plans you lay down need to change,” he says. “We had an emphasis on casinos but we have to be flexible. We’ve put up a fight, but now we all need to move on and recognise where our energies need to be channelled.”