CONCERNS have been raised that projects under Maryport’s £11 million regeneration may look different than first imagined due to rising costs, but the leader of Allerdale Council has moved to allay fears.

The three major projects in Maryport’s Future High Streets funded regeneration are a new lease of life for the Carlton Cinema, remodelling of The Wave Centre to include a swimming pool and the redevelopment of Christ Church into a new base for the Maritime Museum.

However, concerns are held that the original vision for Maryport may not be delivered in the current economic climate.

At a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, Councillor Peter Kendall said: “We’re led to believe that there is going to be a significant reduction on what we will be able to do on the three major projects in Maryport on this regeneration because of the rise in costs for staff but mainly for the rise in costs for materials.

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“So we’re going to end up, we understand, with a budget, we’ll be able to spend the budget and it’ll remain the same but there’ll be no increase coming from Government to top-up the extra monies that will be needed to put into it for officers time along with material costs.”

Cllr Kendall is the mayor of Maryport and Allerdale Council’s elected member for Flimby.

He asked the leader: “Is there any way, there’s an expectation, they’ll be looking to Allerdale to find ways to find the shortfall to bring these three major projects back online so they’re fulfilled to completion?”

Leader of the council Mike Johnson said: “As you know from the meeting this afternoon, officers are working extremely hard and continue to explore all funding options and also delivering options, to make sure we deliver on the ground what we anticipated to deliver in the original plan that was submitted to Government.

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“But as you know, these are challenging times with costs for materials significantly increasing but there’s no view that there’s going to be a significant change.”

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard earlier this week that the Empire Yard project, creating a flexible events and market space, would be downsized due to issues with land ownership issues.

Councillors also heard that the swimming pool proposed for the Wave Centre could be reduced in size from six lanes to four.

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