New report says 'basic failings' caused flop of £25m bid to improve Morecambe town centre

A report has slammed Lancaster City Council for 'basic failings' in a bid for £25m of government money to transform Morecambe town centre.

The council's bid for cash from the £675m 'Future High Streets Fund', which was rejected in 2021, was intended to help "redevelop town centre areas in decline".

But a report by the council's overview and scrutiny committee, published on Thursday, said the bid failed due to "over confidence and a lack of use of expertise and experience in the local area" and "not enough local consultation was undertaken in the pre-bid processes".

It also called for "a more open and wider consultation from a wider range of people with an interest and expertise in the relevant field, elected members of the city council and relevant town and/or parish councils, and the wider public".

"Without a change in outlook and attitudes, there is little likelihood of learning from past errors to improve success rates in the future," said the report.

The bid was based around wanting to make improvements to Morecambe train station (pictured below) to improve the 'arrival' experience for visitors, redevelop land in the centre of Morecambe to 'make a contemporary heart' of the town incorporating iconic buildings like the Winter Gardens and The Platform, improve Victoria Street as a main street in the town, reinforce the Arndale shopping centre as a community hub and place for business, markets and leisure, and change seafront recreation to connect to the planned Eden Project Morecambe and the town centre.

Morecambe was one of 50 towns out of 400 which got through the first round of the Future High Streets Fund in 2019 and was awarded £150,000 to help develop the business case for the £25m bid.

From a shortlist of 101 UK towns/cities who got through to the final stage of the funding process, 72 were successful, but Morecambe was not.

The government said the Morecambe bid "fell very far short of the central benefit cost ratio (‘BCR’) threshold required for a successful bid".

They also said there was a "lack of evidence of public engagement; insufficient clarity relating to delivery, in particular inadequate contingencies, poorly explained rationales, and a lack of evidence of realism (optimism bias); a failure to put council and private-sector funding commitments in place; and inadequate progress on connected matters (e.g. negotiations with market traders)".

The overview and scrutiny committee is a cross-party group of councillors who analyse decisions made by the council.

They set up a task force to find out what went wrong with the bid.

The group said the government's response was "a fairly damning judgment on the bid put forward by the council".

"It is impossible to avoid asking why council funding had not been approved and why private-sector funding was also not secured," said the report.

"These would be, in anyone’s terms, basic matters to be established before the bid was put forward.

"In the view of the task group, these are basic failings in approving the bid document.

"It is not clear that a proper business plan was put forward. If not, why not? Indeed, evidence seems to be lacking of business plans being prepared for major council projects generally. Why is this? An individual businessperson approaching a funding source would be expected to have a fully worked-out business plan to back their funding bids."

Their report said: "The bid was heavily reliant on the development/maintenance of festival events, the wider benefits of which are not demonstrated and may be questionable."

It also said the bid was "very vague" on how "restructuring and reimagining how people arrive and connect with the town" would be achieved.

"The bid proposed one new indoor and two outdoor events areas, alongside the indoor facility at the Winter Gardens (pictured below) and the proposed events venue at Eden North, without any suggestions as to how all these areas would be sustainable, and no revenue budget from which they could be facilitated," it said.

"In respect of the proposed indoor events space, the task group observes that the current ‘Festival Market’ was originally built as an indoor events space, but it only lasted a short time before it became a permanent market, because it was not sustainable as an indoor events venue, even at a time when the council had its own large arts and events department.

"The bid does not make clear why the proposed indoor events space would not merely be a repeat of the same mistake. Moreover, the scheme does not make clear where the 80-plus existing businesses would be relocated.

"In respect of the additional outside events spaces, there is no rationale given for the establishment of these. If these spaces were only in occasional use, and unused for most days in the year, it is hard to see what value they add. Again, there is no mention of revenue funding to support festivals year-round."

The report also mentions Morecambe successfully becoming a 'Mary Portas Pilot Town' in 2008 when a £100,000 grant was given to the town in a government scheme named after retail guru Mary Portas.

The money was spent by a 'Town Team' on ideas to improve Victoria Street as the flagship shopping street of the town centre.

But the task group said this was "unsuccessful".

"The group believed that the Promenade will always be Morecambe’s ‘high street’ and the bid missed the chance to direct people from the Promenade into the various business-based streets behind," said the report.

On improving the Arndale (below), the report said "more detail is required in future, including specifics on use and sustainability, lacking in the bid".

The report also said: "The task group found that there was no clear rationale for developing more retail premises when there are so many retail premises in Morecambe that are empty at the present time."

Several recommendations have been put forward by the task group.

They include that council officers ensure in future bids that:

• Consultants have a local knowledge base, and that use is made of expertise available in the area, including nearby universities
• A policy be developed to include the purchase of land in Morecambe; that any future bids (whether for Morecambe or other parts of the district or the district as a whole) involve consultation with a wider base of stakeholders with a broader scope of interests
• Full consultation takes place with county highways, rail and Eden North to ensure a whole structured, environmentally-friendly transport plan is conceived for the area
• More sustainable regeneration proposals are developed following wider consultation
• Conversion of empty business premises and new build of housing should be undertaken throughout the town centre to bring back the community feel of the whole central area
• The Winter Gardens is an essential part of Morecambe’s future and should be a part of any future bid of a similar nature
• The council tries to source other funding for hyperfast broadband in Morecambe
• This bid is not reused/recycled in the future, as it is outdated and no longer fit for purpose post-COVID
• A new Morecambe Area Action Plan is drafted with full participation of all Morecambe councillors and with business representatives.

The findings of the report and recommendations will be discussed by the council cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday April 11 at Lancaster Town Hall.

The full report can be found here,