Major plans for seaside town get full backing
MAJOR regeneration plans for Porthcawl received the backing of councillors at a full Bridgend council meeting.
Councillors gave the scheme – which involves a supermarket, housing and a leisure facility on Salt Lake Car Park – their approval at a meeting on Wednesday.
The development will take place over the next few years in a number of phases which are all subject to planning permission.
The first phase will begin early next year when the local authority will start marketing the northern end of the car park for a supermarket.
Council officers say there is currently strong market interest from a number of retailers.
The earliest date for the supermarket being completed is summer 2021.
Council officers say the sale of the store site will enable the council to then reinvest the money in the next stages.
Future phases involve housing next to the new store, a revamp for Hillsboro Place car park and a hotel or two on the edges of Hillsboro Place car park.
Development plans for a leisure scheme and further housing on the seafront are first dependent on gaining funding grants from the Welsh Government for new coastal defences which will include a new Eastern Promenade.
This is because the flood risk needs to be mitigated before the leisure facilities and majority of the housing can be developed.
If Welsh Government approves the council’s coastal defence bid the work will take place between 2020/21.
In the short-term the southern end of Salt Lake Car Park will become a councilrun car park, opening in time for Easter 2019.
The council plans to spend £100,000 on new pay and display machines, signage and site remedial works to make it operational.
It says the funding will be repaid from income generated from the car park.
At the full council meeting, councillors raised a number of questions about the scheme.
Councillor Keith Edwards said: “Given that the majority of the development is four to six years away, would it not have been more prudent to run the lease down by that amount of time which would have made the land far cheaper to purchase, rather than push it through with great haste, as happened a year ago, without us knowing the full facts about flood defences?”
But officers said it had always been known flood defences would be needed before development could begin on part of the land.
And council leader Huw David said: “I don’t think anyone would have wanted to delay the development in Porthcawl any further.
“It’s a golden opportunity to begin the regeneration at Salt Lake.
“That’s why we brought the agreement forward last year and it’s the only reason we can bring this proposal here today.”
Rest Bay ward councillor Mike Clarke said the plans were “refreshing” and the town welcomed the greater consultation taking place now than under previous schemes.
Work on the plans was kick-started following the end of a decades-long deadlock between leaseholders – two local families – and the landowners Bridgend council. At the end of last year the council agreed to pay the two Evans families £3.33m to relinquish their rights to Salt Lake car park.
Councillors unanimously supported a presentation of the plans and the reinvestment of around £2.6m funding once land sales have gone through.