Plans in for Eden Project North

Promoters of the £125m project are still hoping to open the Morecambe leisure attraction in 2024 as they look to tie up final funding for the scheme.

The application from the Eden Project follows years of development work and a public consultation that ran this summer. A land transfer from Lancaster City Council was completed in August.

Billed as a major new exemplar attraction, Eden Project North “will showcase sustainable design, reimagining the British seaside resort for the 21st century” said Eden Project.

Eden Project North is being delivered by the team behind the first Eden Project in Cornwall, led by Grimshaw Architects. WSP is the scheme’s planning consultant.

Local partners are Lancaster University, Lancaster City Council, Lancashire County Council and the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership.

Eden Project North’s shell-like domes will be constructed in timber and covered in a flexible transparent membrane with integrated solar cells. These four shells  – known as the Rhythm Machine, the Bay Glade, the Bay Hall and the Natural Observatory – are set in a “dunescape” of landscaped roofing planted with coastal vegetation.

Public access to the promenade running around the edge of the Eden site will not be affected and access to some outdoor gardens will also be possible without buying an admission ticket. RNLI access will also be unaffected.

The project will have two restaurants, one on either side of the site, with both featuring indoor and outdoor seating and boasting spectacular views across Morecambe Bay.

David Harland, chief executive of Eden Project International, said: “Eden Project North is a true collaborative effort and everyone who has taken part in our consultations, both formal and informal, can be confident that their input has helped shape this project.

“We are enormously proud of how this project has developed and hugely grateful to everyone who has contributed to it, especially considering the incredibly difficult circumstances of the last 18 months.

“This is a huge moment for Eden Project North but we are not resting on our laurels. The hard work continues and we hope to have positive news about funding for the project before the end of this year.”

Eden said that talks with the government are ongoing about backing the project, having been denied a requested £70m support package in Rishi Sunak’s March 2021 Budget.

The business case submitted by Eden a year ago presented Eden Project North as a driver of the UK’s post-Covid green recovery and shows that it is a “shovel-ready” project which would deliver significant economic, environmental and social benefits for Lancashire and the wider region.

Eden Project North is projected to attract around one million visitors a year and directly employ more than 400 people, Eden Project said. The business case estimates a visitor spend of more than £200m per year in the region.

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Wonderful idea . just the thing to regenerate Morecambe . Putting it on the Map .

By Malcolm Cormack

Can’t believe how much public money Eden Project are wanting from stakeholders. Money could be better spent elsewhere.

By Katie

Having Morecambe’s prime public area taken over by a monstrosity as planned is a crime the elected members of the council should be ashamed of. To pass ownership over to an outside organisation is gross mismanagement. How this can be allowed is beyond belief. If the development was to go ahead ownership of the land should stay with the local populance.
The Eden Project was built on a worked out quarry area and does not impinge on local communities. No comparison can be made with the prime area in Morecambe that will be effected by the proposed plans. Our area has plenty of disused quarry workings better suited. Having witnessed the crowds of visitors and subsequent traffic recently in the town centre l dread to imagine what it would be like with the number of visitors planned.
Over previous years some wonderful festivals have been held in Morecambe. What will happen to them.

By Ian Booth

A thousand times better than HS2 !!!!!

By Heather

I might be too old to see this project come to fruition, we live in Perth WA we think its just what Morecambe needs, good luck

By Kevan conway

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