Morecambe's Eden Project misses out on cash from government's post-Covid emergency funding pot

The Morecambe scheme will not receive any of the £34m emergency government funding cash awarded to Lancashire to help kick start the economy in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

But Lancashire Councty Council has said the omission will not jeopardise the scheme, and reiterated how important it is to the whole of the north of England.

Six weeks ago, Lancashire County Council answered a call from ministers to identify so-called "shovel-ready" schemes where national investment could speed up the delivery of local developments that were already in the pipeline.

The money will help the county to invest in projects designed to help the economy to recover post-pandemic.

Lancashire's provisional pitch was for a total of £62.5m across 16 projects - including the Eden Project - but it is understood that the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has since prioritised 10 schemes that equated to the county's indicative £34.1m allocation under the government's Getting Building Fund - which has now been secured in full.

Projects given the go-ahead include a long-planned link road in Fylde, an assisted living development in Chorley and a leisure and retail regeneration project in Burnley.

Among the six proposals that were left out of the bid to government were some of those which required the most cash – including £8m for infrastructure works connected to the Eden Project North in Morecambe and a combined £10m on the development of two thermal treatment processes to be used in the management of nuclear materials in Preston.

It is understood that the projects that did not make the shortlist may still be put forward as and when other funding opportunities arise.

Lancashire County Council says that omission of the Eden Project North from the final funding list does not in any way jeopardise the scheme.

£8m had been sought for “transport management and capacity investment”.

The authority’s executive director for growth, transport, environment and community services, Stephen Young, said the development was still “a massive priority, not just for Lancashire, but the whole of the north of England”.

“We saw this as an opportunity to submit a bid to fund a lot of the infrastructure," he said. "It wasn’t for Eden itself, because the funding was for schemes that had to be completed by March 2023, so instead it was for some [of the associated works] that could have been completed by that time.

“It may have been that the criteria for funding had to be around job creation – and infrastructure spending doesn’t create many jobs beyond the building process. However, we didn’t know the methodology being used or what we were being judged against."

A planning application for the project is due to be submitted next year.

Morecambe MP David Morris said: "I am pleased that the LEP are prioritising the Eden Project in Morecambe as one of their key priorities for Lancashire, and this follows a number of extremely productive ministerial discussions with Steve Fogg, chair of the LEP.

"I would not read too much into the Getting Building Fund announcement as the Eden Project Morecambe did not meet the criteria for this fund at the moment.

"In order for an infrastructure project around Eden to be able to show a direct job creation, the project itself will have needed to have already been given the green light.

"This therefore meant our project did not meet the criteria for this extra fund. As you all know we are working hard to get our final case to Government ahead of the next budget and it will be at this stage that we will be looking for funding for the project."

Back in June, the county council – together with the standalone authorities in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen – produced a document entitled “Redefining Lancashire”, in which they set out a pitch to government for a total of £2bn of broader support for the county to help it recover from the pandemic.

Chair of the LEP, Steve Fogg, said of the £34m announced by the government this week: “All of the successful 10 schemes have demonstrated they have the ability to accelerate growth and create employment, and we have chosen a really good mix of projects which will have an impact across the whole of the county.“The schemes range from regeneration projects in some of our towns which have been adversely impacted by Covid-19, to high-end research and development facilities which will contribute to the government’s clean growth agenda."