More cash for Lynn marina
COUNCILLORS have agreed to invest more money in plans to create a 250-berth marina in Lynn.
The cost of the scheme has risen to between 20 million and 35 million and needs 5.2 million investment in the next 18 months to move it forward, a report to West Norfolk's cabinet said.
The cabinet agreed to the investment and to the formation of a special group to progress the project, when it met on Tuesday.
If the project never happens, up to 2.7 million could be lost, the report said. But earlier this year it was estimated the marina has the potential to boost the district's economy by 13 million a year and create up to 300 new jobs.
But not everyone is happy with the plans. Jeremy Dearling, secretary of the Friars Community Group , said the group considers the marina proposal to be unacceptable in its present form.
The group was formed to try to protect the Friars from inappropriate development and Mr Dearling said although they have not yet formally discussed the marina as a single item, where it has arisen within the context of other discussions the general consensus has been that what the council is proposing is unacceptable in its present form.
It is too big in scale, too ambitious in its aspirations, completely unworkable to anyone who has a local knowledge of the tides and silting problems, and it could be argued that it would be better to have wasted the vast sum of money and stop now, than to carry on and waste more after completion, he said.
He added that as an individual he found the following points most disturbing:
Where is the evidence that it will be economically viable?
Why hasn't the council made the evidence it has gathered available for public scrutiny?
Where is the evidence that it has received public support?
The council has acknowledged that it will require regular dredging but why has this been so reluctantly accepted?
Where are the hordes of experienced sailors willing to sail down the 12 miles of the Ouse negotiating the sandbanks only to wait ten hours until a favourable tide allows them into the marina, maybe at 2.45am?
Why the indecent haste to get this moving?
Who are the millionaires queuing up to buy a riverside flat in Lynn with Hillington Square as a neighbour?
It's public knowledge that the council has no intention of doing anything than pay lip service to public opinion; why should it be allowed to get away with this?
"If the council were less ambitious, if the council built something along the rural lines of Ely there would be more credibility, but as it stands at present the overwhelming opinion of those I've spoken to is one of deep concern," he said.
Do you share the concerns?Or do you want to speak up for the marina plan? Or do you have a different scheme in mind for the town? Let us have your views.
Write to: The editor, Lynn News, Limes House, Purfleet Street, King's Lynn, PE30 1HL, or email malcolm.powell@lynnnews.co.uk
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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