Eden Project North: Leaders in £70m government funding plea

The Eden Project North will include gardens, performance spaces and observatories at the Morecambe Bay site

The chancellor of the exchequer has been urged by 88 business leaders and academics to give £70m of funding to a tourist attraction in Lancashire.

A letter, signed by designer Wayne Hemingway, Lancaster University's Prof Dame Sue Black and more, asked Rishi Sunak to support Morecambe's Eden Project North in his upcoming Budget.

A spokesman said the funds were "critical" to a plan to open in 2024.

The government said it does not comment on speculation about the Budget.

The spokesman for the Eden Project charity said it was hoped the new Lancashire site, which will include gardens, performance spaces and observatories, would attract a million visitors every year and employ more than 400 people.

He said that in total, the business case "projects that the eventual cost of Eden Project North will be £125m".

"Eden is seeking a mixture of private and public funds to make up the difference beyond any central government funding," he added.

The charity hopes to open the Morecambe attraction in 2024

The letter, which was also signed by award-winning artist Wolfgang Buttress, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron and the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Shuttleworth, said the scheme was a "once in a generation opportunity".

It added that if the funding was granted, it would "act as a catalyst to provide further confidence for commercial investment" in the town.

Prof Dame Sue said she could not think of "any better project than Eden Project North".

"It is going to make such a difference to Morecambe, Lancaster and the entire of Lancashire," she added.

The Eden Project charity's chief executive, David Harland, said he was "heartened to have received such passionate support".

"[We] hope that the government can see that Eden Project North will be enormously beneficial for the region," he said.

He added that the local community was "completely behind" the scheme and "we know that they are as determined as us to make a success of this vision".

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it does not comment on speculation about the Budget, adding it will "set out further details in due course".