Eden Project North: Council submits £50m levelling up funding bid

The eco-attraction will transform Morecambe's economy, says the leader of Lancaster City Council

A £50m bid for levelling up funds to support Eden Project North has been submitted to the government, a council has said.

In April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised the Morecambe scheme would be funded as long as a "proper business case" was submitted.

Lancaster City Council said the money would cover half of the projected £100m building costs.

Council leader Caroline Jackson said the project was crucial for the area.

She said Eden Project North, which would be a sister site to the existing Eden Project in Cornwall, provided "an outstanding opportunity to reinvent Morecambe for the 21st Century".

"It will transform the local economy and have a transformative effect, not just on Morecambe, but the whole region," she added.

The authority approved plans for the project, which will include three giant seafront shell-shaped pavilions on the town's seafront, in January.

'Game-changer'

A spokesman said the bid sets out the economic, environmental, social, educational and cultural benefits the attraction will bring to Morecambe and the area.

He added that 300 green jobs will be directly created by Eden Project North, plus more than 1,000 additional new jobs supported in the region.

Eden Project chief executive Rob Chatwin said Morecambe Bay was "a uniquely beautiful location" and the new buildings had been designed "to complement and enhance that".

David Morris, Conservative MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, said it was the "flagship opportunity facing our community for a generation".

"It will be an economic and educational game-changer, not just for the immediate Morecambe area, but the north of England."

Mr Johnson, who is due to leave office on 6 September, told BBC Radio Lancashire in April the government was "going to make the funding available but we still need to see the proper business case".

An Eden Project spokesman previously said the remainder of the costs will come from already-identified private and philanthropic funding sources.

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