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Search the Public Notice PortalRedcar’s MP has defended her ambitions for a new pier, while acknowledging the scepticism of some local people.
Speaking at UKREiiF – an investment summit in Leeds – Anna Turley said she would love to see what would be the first new pier in the country in 70 years, built in Redcar, highlighting how the town used to have three.
She said the pier would be “an anchor and statement development”. The MP’s campaign for a pier was launched earlier this year when she announced proposals as part of a wider ‘Redcar Rising’ project. Ms Turley, who is chair of the Labour Party, discussed the ambition in Leeds on Tuesday, May 19, during a session dedicated to the regeneration work ongoing in the town and potential for the future.
Following the session, Ms Turley spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about the specific pier plans and responded to sceptics, who have described the idea as pie in the sky. She said: “You’ve always got to start with ambition and you’ve got to start with dreams”, asserting that a pier is exactly what the people of Redcar have asked her for.
Ms Turley said: “We can either accept decline” and “plod on”, or the alternative is the regeneration programme, adding: “I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t confident on the basis of the conversations I’ve had with serious developers, with serious pension funders, with people who do these kind of regeneration projects in other seaside towns around the country.”
She added: “I wouldn’t be staking my credibility on this, if I didn’t believe this was deliverable and here in Leeds, at UKREiiF, we’ve got the biggest developers in the country, we’ve got the biggest funders in the country.”
Ms Turley also said: “They can be part of turning a town around, in the course of the next five to ten years and creating something incredible”, adding that investors “want to see that political ambition from local political leaders”.
While saying that patience was needed, Ms Turley was also looking forward to sharing more details in the “coming weeks and months”, highlighting the importance of keeping residents involved as “I want their help in designing it”. She acknowledged people are “understandably sceptical” due to the “failed regen projects in the past”.
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The town’s original pier opened in 1873. It featured kiosks at the entrance and a bandstand. It was damaged by a number of boat collisions in its early years. A pavilion ballroom was added in 1907, and a café and tearoom in 1928. Unfortunately, the Second World War was the beginning of the end, as part of the pier was removed in case of an invasion and it was damaged by a mine.
Post-war the pier was never repaired, and suffered further storm damage over the years before finally being declared unsafe. It was demolished in 1981. In 2013 the £1.6m Redcar Beacon – formerly known as the vertical pier – was opened courting some controversy at the time and there were still calls for a traditional pier.
Would you like to see a new pier in Redcar? Let us know in the comments below.
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