Bill for sidelined Tadpole soars to £420k

The 5 million Old Town development at The Stade was put on hold at last Wednesday's full council meeting pending a seafront strategy assessing its suitability alongside other town regeneration projects.

And the total cost of the project could clear 420,000 spread over four years, including 169,471 paid to employees working on the project.

But council leader Jeremy Birch dismissed the seemingly-doomed project as "relatively small scale" compared to other regeneration jewels such as Pelham Crescent.

A space-age design for the project - jokingly nicknamed "the giant slug" amongst residents - was widely mocked when it was unveiled two years ago. A smaller design - known as "the tadpole" - went to consultation last November, complete with restaurant and bar, exhibition space and two beachfront public squares.

But its future was thrown into doubt after it was revealed the foreshore was not owned by the council, but instead by an Elizabethan charitable trust set up to keep the land for "the common use, benefit and enjoyment" of the public.

The shelving of the project came as the full extent of expenditure was revealed to councillors and the public.

The breakdown of costs includes:

p 27,335 on a business planning exercise exploring the concepts of a fish restaurant, exhibition space and visitor centre in 2000

p 9,573 paid to the Tourism Company in 2002/3 for a study on the feasibility of an on-site restaurant, a feature later opposed by the Charity Commission

p 9,600 on a report detailing potential visitor centre content and interpretation

p 178,599 paid to architects Ushida Findlay to produce four schemes, two of which went to public consultation.

The council first mooted the concept as a landmark feature for the town in 1999. But the project has since been dwarfed by plans for Station Plaza and the 53 million Pelham Square seafront development.

Council leader Jeremy Birch said: "The reason we have decided not to pursue the project was not to do with trust issues but with regeneration ones. By the time we got through the Charity Commission there were several regeneration projects going on.

"We have received a regeneration grant for projects in the town totalling 38 million over three years. Compared to that, 250,000 isn't a lot of money. It would be irresponsible to pretend none of the other projects are going on and carry on with our relatively small-scale project regardless. If the trust was not an issue I would still have that view. It's got to fit in with the larger regeneration projects that were not around when we first discussed this."

But the council's handling of the Stade issue was criticised by opposition councillors at last Wednesday's full council meeting.

Conservative Cllr Peter Pragnell claimed the consultation process did not consider the possibility of keeping the site intact. He said: "There should always be a box marked none of the above just in case people don't want something there."

And Liberal Democrat Cllr Richard Stevens admitted to being "concerned" about the money spent on the project. He said: "Public money should not be taken lightly and these are not insignificant sums of money."