First steps agreed towards Blackpool's £65m multiversity

The council's executive has voted in favour of taking steps towards using compulsory purchase powers if necessary to clear the area needed for the development, if negotiations with property owners fall through.

A decision notice says "if other options are exhausted then the council would consider the use of compulsory purchase order powers to assemble the site".

It was also agreed to pursue detailed negotiations with interested parties and to delegate authority to authorise expenditure.

If talks fail to ensure assembly of the full area required, council officers are instructed "to commence all necessary preparatory works for the making of a compulsory purchase order to support the site assembly of the land required for the third phase of the regeneration and any associated road improvements and road closures."

Further reports must then be brought back to the executive to update councillors on the progress being made with the scheme.

Funding of £9m has already been secured for site assembly for the multiversity as part of the Town Deal, while a bid for £40m towards construction has been made to the government’s Levelling Up Fund.

The proposals would see Blackpool and the Fylde College relocate the University Centre Blackpool Campus from Park Road to a new three acre site with a capacity for up to 3,000 students.

The move is seen as a key town centre regeneration scheme to boost footfall.

A separate report updating the executive on the Levelling Up Bid, says the multiversity would "complement other major developments, including the developments at Talbot Gateway, the extension to the Houndshill Shopping Centre and the new Winter Gardens Conference and Exhibition Centre, in providing year-round footfall into the town centre, reducing the impacts of seasonality."

It will also "provide uplift to an area that has not previously benefitted from significant investment, improving the built environment significantly, and supporting the creation of high-quality, pedestrianised, public open space."

Work is already underway in the area to build £100m new civil service offices.