Town regeneration plan to 'deliver real change'
BBCA "transformational" long-term plan to regenerate Whitehaven has been approved by senior Cumberland councillors.
The Whitehaven Masterplan includes proposals to improve public areas and shop fronts, as well as longer-term ambitions for a new hotel and sports centre.
The council's deputy leader and Labour councillor for Kells and Sandwith in the town, Emma Williamson, said it would "deliver real change".
But some local people who spoke to the BBC said similar projects had been discussed before but not delivered.
The strategy sets out the council's desired improvements and developments in the town up until 2040, to be delivered with a mixture of public and private money.
It includes an initial stage in which the council will aim to invest in shop fronts, streets and other public areas.
This includes the main shopping street, King Street, which Williamson said was a "priority" and had been "left to rack and ruin".
Later phases of the masterplan include proposals for a new hotel, a leisure centre and housing for older people on the site of the current leisure centre.
Williamson said: "It's really important that we all get behind the masterplan and actually we start talking our town up, rather than talking it down.
"This masterplan is going to be transformational, we're going to deliver real change and it's going to benefit all residents."
Deanne Shallcross, chief executive of Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners, said she hoped the organisation would be a "significant partner" in the plan.
Scepticism about delivery
She said there would be efforts to improve the appearance of the harbour and celebrate the local fishing industry, with the possibility of a permanent place to sell fresh fish.
But Martin King from Whitehaven said he remembered discussions about regeneration decades ago, but the town had still declined.
Asked if he was sceptical about projects in the masterplan being delivered, he said: "I don't think I'll ever see it anyhow; put it that way."
