Council issues challenge to Frontierland site owners

Lancaster City Council has today challenged the owners of the former Frontierland Leisure Complex to set out their plans for redeveloping the derelict site.

Planning permission was granted to Opus Land North in 2015 for new retail units, restaurants, a hotel, landscaping and public art. A further planning application was approved the following year to allow additional retailing within the same scheme.  Both planning permissions have now expired and no new proposals have been formally submitted by Opus, or by the site’s owners, Morrisons.

Coun John Reynolds, Lancaster City Council’s cabinet member for Planning, said: “At a time when the Council is working proactively with important partners such as Eden Project International to help deliver generational change for the economy of Morecambe, the continued dereliction of this key site remains a visual blight on the town. 

"So today we are issuing this challenge to the site’s owners. Be open with the residents of Morecambe about your long-term plans for developing this site and provide them and us with a timescale for when you will deliver it.  

"We want the landowner to start matching the ambition shown by the council in its recent Future High Streets Fund proposals, which seeks to deliver transformational change in Morecambe Town Centre.  There is a genuine opportunity for the Frontierland site to contribute a new mix of uses that will benefit the town and still provide a competitive return for the landowner and developer.  

"But the council wants to make it clear that there can be no more delay, and that any new proposals must be high-quality, deliverable and seek to create places for people, rather than places that are dominated by car parking."

Last updated: 03 October 2019