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We successfully bid for the money through the government’s Levelling Up Fund, which is designed to create jobs and boost the economy, as part of our ambitious placemaking vision for the town.
This money will help reinvent iconic heritage buildings, support local businesses, create new jobs, and deliver a year-round experience-led economy for the future.
Several high-profile sites across Weston’s town centre and seafront will receive investment.
These include:
- Tropicana - building on the international profile raised by SEE MONSTER, the Tropicana will be enhanced and expanded to create an attractive, 8,000 capacity facility, with improvements to food and drink facilities.
- Marine Lake - year-round facilities will be built for food, drink and leisure.
- Weston town centre - more flexible spaces will be created to attract independent, high-quality retail and other uses. Digital and creative design will encourage people to move around the town centre and seafront to discover some of its hidden treasures.
- Birnbeck Pier – funding will be used to improve buildings at the shore end of the pier and bring them back into use. This will complement funding already secured to improve the pier structure itself.
- Grove Park – the entrance to this beautiful town centre green space will be improved and the park’s buildings repurposed after they’ve been vacated by Weston-super-Mare Town Council.
These projects will help increase footfall and spending in the town, and turning local sites into must-visit destinations.
The funding will add further momentum to already changing perceptions of Weston, attract further investment, and create a positive cycle of ongoing change and reinvention.
Weston has a greater need than other local towns for capital investment to help increase opportunities for work and healthy living, which will benefit all residents of North Somerset.
As a local council, our budgets remain under more pressure than ever before, with continuing inflationary cost pressures and stretched resources.
At the same time, we’re seeing rising demands on our services from more residents being pushed into poverty because of the cost-of-living crisis.
However, government grants offer us opportunities to invest in local infrastructure, services and communities and so we’ll always bid for such funding as and when it’s available.