Town centre boost as retail plans approved

Tower Street car park where redevelopment has received planning permission

It is hoped the scheme will help create new jobs and continue the regeneration of that part of the town centre.

Blackpool Council’s planning committee approved an outline application for the scheme to include retail and food outlets on the ground floor, and leisure development.

The next stage will be for detailed plans to be unveiled for the land on Tower Street which is owned by the council and currently used as a car park.

Coun Ian Coleman, who represents Talbot ward which includes the application site, said afterwards: “This has to be good for the town centre and will hopefully bring new jobs as well.

“It is a very prominent site, between the Tower and Winter Gardens so the detailed design needs to be of a high standard to reflect that.

“It will also help link the Houndshill Centre with the Winter Gardens. I am looking forward to the detailed plans coming forward and we will be looking at them very closely.”

Businessman Peter Swan, who owns the Sands entertainment venue on Central Promenade, lodged the plans in January.

Planning approval was granted in 2006 for a 63-bedroom, five-storey hotel on the site, and two stores occupying 4,000 square metres over two floors.

That scheme never went ahead and the planning permission has lapsed. Instead the site was cleared in 2011 and converted to a car park.