A buzzing arts scene with annual festivals celebrating Roman and maritime heritage, seafood and the Blues could all be staged in Maryport.

A £12 million-plus plan of action has been drawn up to improve the town, increase tourism, encourage business development and provide more jobs.

It has been produced by local businesses and organisations, led by the Love Maryport Town Team and Allerdale council as part of a bid for part of the government’s £90m Coastal Revival Fund.

The Maryport Coastal Community Team is hoping to claim £3m worth of grants to fund priority short and medium-term projects.

Priority projects include creating a series of new events that could include arts festivals, a Roman festival, maritime festival and a seafood festival, a permanent events venue and re-developing the Allonby playground.

Longer term schemes would see trails based around the life and works of artist Percy Kelly and an art gallery which could involve using the artist’s old home in Allonby; redeveloping the old toilet block on the Maryport promenade as a café, along with further improvements to that area.

It is estimated that the Percy Kelly gallery could cost up to £2m and the events venue £500,000.

There are also plans to spend a further £6million on renovating the town’s promenade, £2m on Elizabeth Dock improvements and another million on restoring the train turnstile.

The group has also singled out issues in the town that need improving, such as the poor condition of buildings in the main shopping area, local businesses failing to provide proper service for visitors, the limited number and quality of accommodation and underused buildings.

And it intends on renovating and repairing the harbour, rail station and the Grasslot shore.

The plan of action has to be submitted by the end of this month to qualify as a bid for part of the £90m development fund.

Debbie Wright, chair of the Love Maryport Town Team says: “We need a really good events programme to get people in and keep it interesting for people.

“We want to bring people into Maryport to improve the area and make it more enjoyable for the people here.

“It would be amazing if we could get funding for everything, but it would be good to be able to start with a few things.”