Lyme: £500,000 seafront shelters scheme scuppered (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Lyme: £500,000 seafront shelters scheme scuppered

10:35am Thursday 19th November 2009

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HOPES of securing a £500,000 grant towards the major upgrading of Lyme’s seafront shelters have been scuppered.

The town’s bid for vital cash aid towards the £1.25million scheme was rejected this week by the Government’s Sea Change programme.

It means the full regeneration project cannot now be carried out in one go – instead the work will have to be phased while additional cash is sought.

Yesterday, representatives of the funding arm of the Shelters Regeneration Working Group expressed their disappointment.

In a joint statement Chris Boothroyd and Stephen Wilkins said it was particularly upsetting because of all the work that had been put into making the application by a number of people. But their message was: “All is not lost”.

They said: “We’re obviously disappointed – getting such a large wedge of funding would have made the Shelters Project easier.”

But they said the town should remember three important facts: n We knew there were 32 rival submissions, many of them needier than ours n This bid was not central to our funding plans – we put in for it because it was there and because we would have been remiss not to try for it.

n All is not lost. The work that went into preparing this submission covered many of the aspects that are needed, if in various different forms, for any funding bid.

The statement continued: “So the campaign will continue, more approaches for money will be made, and the Sea Change submission will undoubtedly be recycled and updated several times!

“The likelihood now is that, barring the lucky appearance of a tame millionaire, the shelters project will have to proceed in stages, with the £750,000 already earmarked being used for the first phase, essentially the work at Marine Parade level, with the aim of opening that for the 2011 season.

“Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for the Design Team, engaged at the moment on the complex work required to obtain Building Regulations approval.

“And we’ll be doing everything we can to raise as much of the balance of funding as we can in the shortest possible time so that completing the project does not take longer than necessary.”

Lyme Regis town clerk Mike Lewis said: “The project was always designed to be staged in case funding proved problematic. The basic £750,000 scheme will still go ahead to the same timescale and the funding arm of the Working Group will redouble its efforts to secure the additional amount required to build the complete scheme as approved by both the town council and the planning authority West Dorset District Council.”

A spokesman for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe), which oversees the Sea Change programme, said they were not sure whether Lyme could reapply for aid in the next round of funding.”

Features of the shelters scheme design are to: n Give plenty of sheltered seating and viewing space at Marine parade, mezzanine and garden levels.

n Greatly improve access for wheelchairs and pushchairs at all levels.

n Provide well-paved walkways at all levels.

n Restore full emphasis to the historic pavilion.

n Increase the variety of public and community uses of the sheltered areas, community rooms and colonnades.

n Provide a larger under-cover space for music, art and drama and for their audiences.

n Provide information/interpretation/exhibition space.

n Incorporate a control room for festival functions.

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