Last night over 50 people in two groups attended the first public consultation presentations given by Lucy Parsons, project manager for the Newlyn Pier and Harbour Commissioners in the new fish market conference room. Lucy ran through some background to the proposed developments and fielded questions from the audience...
especially with regard to the very short timescale between revealing the plans and the final submission date - the middle of next month.
NP&HC are currently in the process of submitting the second phase of a funding bid to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the EU Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF)Growth Programme 2014-2020 for part-funding of a £6.142m project with the aim of developing core harbour activity and high value employment.
If successful, NP&HC could accelerate their planned development programme to maximise useable space; further enhance the efficiency and safety of harbour operations; improve the public realm; screen off industrial traffic, and construct a number of high quality industrial units during the next three years.
Specifically, this programme would involve the phased replacement of harbour buildings on The Strand and the construction of six to eight industrial units on the site of the inshore lifeboat shed when the RNLI have relocated their activities to the new Penlee Lifeboat Station.
These units would be designed to complement Newlyn’s heritage, maximise views, provide professional, customer-facing facilities and improve both commercial and pedestrian access. Green spaces would be incorporated within the overall development and hidden history would be revealed in order to further enhance public amenity.
“By providing premises for a broader range of fisheries and marine industry as well as improving value for our existing tenants, we can create more well-paid jobs and provide the catalyst for other local businesses to prosper,” explains Harbour Master & Chief Executive Officer, Rob Parsons. “This proposed development is about improving the townscape, the traffic flow and the economic vitality of Newlyn so we look forward to sharing our plans with local people to demonstrate how they could benefit everyone in our diverse community.”
These public consultation events will incorporate a rolling programme of tours of the recently-refurbished Fish Market and information slides in the Board Room between 5pm and 7pm on Friday 7thSeptember and 9am and 12 noon on Saturday 8th September. Further updates will be posted to the harbour's website for those who are unable to attend.
The meetings were told that the current Brexit situation had seriously eroded into the time left available to bid for EU (mainly ERDF) funding.