Joint Visit to Great Yarmouth

Senior representatives from the Environment Agency and the Department for Communities and Local Government visited Great Yarmouth in June hosted by Great Yarmouth Borough Council and 1st East.

Amongst the visitors were Daniel Thornton - Director of Local Economic Development and Renewal at the Department for Communities and Local Government; Tim Freathy - Deputy Regional Director for Development & Infrastructure at GO-East; Keith Moore, Planning Manager and Mark Johnson, Flood Risk Management Manager from the Environment Agency.

Following an introductory presentation by Peter Hardy, Executive Director (Economy and Environment) at the Borough Council, the visitors toured the town, visiting the seafront to look at the £16.3 million inteGREAT improvement project as well as the SHARP neighbourhood renewal programme in the Wellesley Road area. They continued on to EastPort and the possible casino site (south of the Pleasure Beach), before visiting Ice House Quay, where Philip Watkins, 1st East Chief Executive explained the proposals for the creation of a vibrant new residential area of the town, opposite the historic South Quay.

They also visited the recently opened Novus Centre where they heard a presentation from Richard Percy, Programme Manager for enterpriseGY, followed by a look around St George’s Theatre and the King Street area, plans for the regeneration of which have been submitted to the £45 million Sea Change capital grants fund, designed to support the regeneration of coastal towns.

Commenting on the visit, 1st East Chief Executive Philip Watkins said, “The visit provided a great opportunity to showcase the progress on several key regeneration projects, working in partnership with the council’s Regeneration Team. In particular we were able to highlight the potential of major regeneration schemes, such as the proposals for Ice House Quay, which will have a significant impact on the face and future of the town.”


Tide is Turning for Regeneration in Great Yarmouth

1st East, the urban regeneration company for Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth is keen to capitalise on the wider regeneration opportunities that the construction of the £50 million outer harbour for Great Yarmouth, EastPort UK, will bring.

The construction project is a joint venture by Nuttall John Martin and Van Oord UK for the Great Yarmouth Port Company, who are creating the breakwaters, the heavy dredging for the deep water basin and construction of the quay walls.

Construction is continuing at a pace, as this recent picture of the reclaimed land within the harbour shows. When complete, the outer harbour will provide sufficient space for vessels up to 210 metres in length and 10 metres draught during all states of tide with associated roll on - roll off platforms.;

On a recent visit to see the construction progress, Philip Watkins, 1st East Chief Executive said, “The facts and figures on such a major construction project are staggering. In total some 17.6 hectares of land are being reclaimed from the sea for port development through the dredging of 1.6 million cubic metres of sand. 850,000 tonnes of rock have gone into construction of the two breakwaters, which are now nearing completion.”

1st East’s intervention area includes EastPort UK and the construction of the outer harbour heralds a new era for the port and the economic future of the town, acting as a catalyst for wider regeneration by providing opportunities for redevelopment in the upper area of the river port.

Tomasz Kozlowski, Development Director at 1st East explains: the priority areas for regeneration are Breydon Reach, (at the confluence of the rivers Yare and Bure) where both the east bank - North Quay - and the west Bank - Bure Harbour Quay - offer the opportunity to create new mixed use developments. Similarly, just south of Haven Bridge and opposite the Town Hall, Ice House Quay provides an opportunity to create new homes, offices and commercial space.”

One of the big challenges for the town is to provide the infrastructure to support these developments. “Great Yarmouth needs a third river crossing and 1st East’s plans identify this as the single most important infrastructure project. A new bridge will provide a new entrance to the seafront to support the tourism industry; it will provide extra capacity for EastPort U.K. as operations expand and it will help re-route and decongest the new development areas.

The completion of the outer harbour - the container terminal becoming operational in early 2009, will be a milestone in the economic recovery of the town, which has suffered from the decline of traditional industries and the changing nature of the tourism industry.

Philip Watkins is confident that the tide is turning for the town, “The regeneration plans coupled with the major public realm improvements, EastPort UK, and the recent government confirmation that Great Yarmouth has been granted a large casino operating licence, means that there are more investment opportunities than ever here in our unique east coast location.”