Blackpool to approve relocated courts complex 

Moving the town’s Magistrates’, family, and civil courts to Devonshire Road would free up land needed to deliver the £300m Blackpool Central leisure scheme. 

Blackpool Council’s planning committee will meet next week to consider the Ministry of Justice’s plans for the three-storey replacement court complex on a four-acre site previously occupied by Devonshire Road Hospital. 

In 2022, the Ministry of Justice pledged £40m to relocate the courts from the Blackpool Central site to Devonshire Road. The site has been largely vacant since 2007 when the hospital was demolished. 

Once the new complex is complete, the existing court buildings off Chapel Street could be demolished. This would pave the way for the main phases of Nikal’s £300m Blackpool Central scheme, which could attract around 600,000 additional visitors to the resort every year.   

Mott Macdonald is advising the MoJ on planning and Feilden + Mawson is leading on design. 

To learn more about the scheme, search for planning reference 23/0777 on Blackpool Council’s planning portal.