Agenda item - RIVERFRONT REGENERATION

Appendix 1 will be sent out as a supplement due to the size of the document.

RECOMMENDED: 1) That the final King’s Lynn Riverfront Delivery Plan be endorsed.

2) That the next steps be approved to progress and test the scheme further as set out in section 4 of the report

3) Approve allocation of up to £250,000 to the 2017/18 capital programme to support next phase of work to develop and test the scheme further as detailed in section 4 of the report.

4) That the potential delivery options outlined in section 8 of the report be noted and officers endorsed to progress investigation and testing of these options in order to ascertain developer interest in the scheme.

5) That officers be authorised to progress discussions and applications to external partners and funding agencies to enable delivery of the scheme.

Reason for Decision

To enable a transformational riverfront scheme for King’s Lynn to be developed and tested further in line with the vision and principles set out in the masterplan in line with the corporate priority to drive local economic and housing growth.

The Regeneration, Heritage and Economic Development Manager presented a report proposing the endorsement of the Riverfront Delivery Plan which had been prepared following extensive site analysis and public consultation, for the historic King’s Lynn riverfront area. The masterplan set out the vision and design principles for the development of this strategic regeneration area. The Delivery Plan was accompanied by an exempt detailed financial viability and delivery options report (exempt – appendix 3) which suggested there was sufficient evidence of viability at this stage to pursue the project. The report recommended an allocation of up to £350,000 (of which £100,000 was externally funded from the Heritage Action Zone for a feasibility study and potentially £125,000 from the Norfolk Business Rates Pool) to progress the next stage of work in order to develop and test the scheme further.

Cabinet acknowledged that the long term ambition was to improve the Riverfront as the Tuesday and Saturday Market Places had already been and to encourage people to come to the town taking in the Riverfront and the Nar Loop area. The proposals would also improve the air pollution situation for the whole of the town when there were few opportunities to alleviate some of the areas with Air Quality problems. It was also acknowledged that as a major scheme, a number of issues would have to be looked at in detail before final decisions were taken.

Under Standing Order 34 Councillor C Crofts commented on his vision for the encouragement of coach excursions to the town to encourage tourists to visit by providing user friendly drop off sites for coaches with some facilities. He had carried out research and very few coach companies came to the town for the day, when they did do to other towns with far less to offer. He therefore felt that this should be incorporated into the plan.

Under Standing Order 34 Councillor C Joyce commented that he could not see anything on the impact the development of the Riverfront would have on the rest of the town, or that concerns of local groups were being taken into account. He referred to an earlier planning permission on NORA and a traffic cap on the area. He also had concern about the number of properties being built in King’s Lynn, and considered that if the Riverfront was being developed for housing the residents would need a doctors surgery which he thought could sit in Boal Quay.

The Regeneration Programmes Manager explained that the traffic cap referred to was lifted in 2012 following highway works to the area. A transport assessment would be carried out as part of the work which would feed into any planning application.

It was also confirmed that the demand and location of the proposed doctors surgery was at the request of the NHS, not the Borough Council.