Details of a £300 million scheme to breathe new life into Whitehaven have been revealed.

Work is due to start this year on the ambitious North Shore project, which aims to stimulate investment in the town and revitalise it.

It includes:

  • A £4.1 million bus station revamp
  • A multi-storey car park
  • A five-storey office complex
  • A four-star hotel

Spearheaded by property company BEC, formerly known as Britain’s Energy Coast, its partners include Copeland Council and Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners.

Work will be carried out in two phases. Phase one is worth £55m and phase two is worth around £250m.

Michael Pemberton, BEC chief executive, said: “Whitehaven should be the coastal town of the Lake District and I believe our plans could help it achieve that.

“We hope this will encourage other businesses to invest in the town. We cannot be the panacea – this cannot fix everybody’s problems, but it is a stimuli.”

Mike Starkie, Copeland mayor, added: “This is our opportunity to change Whitehaven for the better and forever.

“It’s the most exciting proposal and has the potential to transform the town. It’s the springboard to help us regenerate not just Whitehaven, but the whole borough.”

Bus station

Work is due to start to revamp the bus station later this year.

Renamed the Buzz Station, BEC is working with Sellafield Ltd to keep the facade of the building and create within it office space.

Sellafield is investing £2.6m to convert the derelict building into a hothouse for tech, digital, media, and creative start-ups. It is hoped up to 20 businesses could be housed there.

The scheme is funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The plan also includes conference and meeting space for 75 people, health and well-being facilities and an 100-seat cafe-bar, open to the public and serving locally sourced produce.

Jamie Reed, head of development and community relations for Sellafield Ltd, said: “West Cumbria has always been a crucible of innovation, energy, and ideas.

“We pioneered the civil nuclear industry and we’re leading the world in decommissioning and waste management.

“Now we’re positioning ourselves for the next wave of growth in the tech and digital industries.

“That means unleashing the energy and ambition of local people to innovate, invent, and inspire.

“The bus station scheme will provide the ideal environment for collaboration and creativity, allowing the next generation of tech entrepreneurs to lead our economic renewal."

The building will also work with the Beacon museum to provide education opportunities for schoolchildren, college students, and adult learners.

It will be linked to existing regional and national economic growth programmes via the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP.)

Mr Pemberton said: “We’re really excited by these plans. It will be a very industrial setting, on two levels. We're focusing on it being a digital hub, for digital businesses."

Multi-storey car park

Land next to Tesco, to the west of North Shore Road, has been earmarked for the multi-storey car park.

Mr Pemberton, a former managing director of National Car Parks, said: “Car parking has long been an issue in Whitehaven, and the new car park seeks to address this.

“It will be built in stages, growing as the other schemes come on line, so it caters to the demand as it is needed.

“While a steel or concrete structure would probably be the cheapest option, we are looking at creating a ‘living’ structure, with plants growing up its walls and a ‘living ceiling’ to improve the scheme’s overall carbon footprint and visual appeal.”

The number of spaces have not yet been determined but it could be up to 700. Work is earmarked to start towards the end of next year.

Bus depot

Talks are well under way with hotel groups to build a seven-storey hotel, with around 100 rooms, on the bus depot site.

Mr Pemberton said the hotel would include a 'sky bar' on the roof to take advantage of the views over the harbour.

He added: “We need to take advantage of our proximity to the Lake District World Heritage Status Site, but this is not just something for tourists – we need the hotel to be a place for locals to visit for meals or drinks.”

Mr Starkie added: “If we’re trying to reinvent ourselves as a destination for tourists, the town needs more places for people to stay.”

It is hoped work to build the hotel will begin next year.

Mark House site

Mr Starkie said: “Mark House has long been a symbol of Whitehaven’s decay and decline.

"It was a key priority of mine when I was elected and its demolition and soon-to-be rebuilding is now a symbol of Whitehaven’s renaissance.”

Plans are in place to build a five-storey 75,000sq ft office building on the Mark House site.

It is hoped a planning application will be lodged in the summer and if successful, work will start next year or early 2020.

Mr Pemberton said: “It’s one of the premier sites in the North West. We don’t want it to simply be office space, however.

“The ground floor, we hope, will be a ‘public service hub’, housing services from organisations like Copeland Council and the NHS, for example, so it delivers more footfall to the harbour area.”

North Shore

An area off the coast of Whitehaven has been earmarked to develop a new community. Work could start as early as 2022 to build out from the North Shore into the Irish Sea, using reclaimed materials.

It would include houses, sports facilities and much more.

Mr Pemberton said: “This is very much for the future and is dependent on a whole range of factors.

“It is very exciting and plans are only in their initial stages.”

Roads

A consultation has been launched into £2.5m plans to upgrade the junction at Bransty Row and North Shore Road to ease congestion, improve traffic flow and enhance road safety.

People can discuss the road plans at a drop-in session on Monday, April 23 from 3pm to 7pm at Tesco.

The consultation closes on Friday, May 4. Any comments should be emailed to npif@cumbria.gov.uk

Your views

A dedicated consultation cabin will be open on the bus depot site by the end of April.

It will be open two half-days a week and anyone can drop in to find out more about the scheme.

BEC is also planning a series of events about the different elements of the scheme and the first is on April 24 at The Beacon Portal from 10am.

Email events@BECnorthshore.com to attend and for more information.

A new website has also been launched – http://becnorthshore.com – which will be updated regularly.