London students to explore south Blackpool regeneration

A project to revitalise an area of south Blackpool is making up a competition brief for London students.

Teams made up of transport planning, urban design and regeneration students will each create a master plan for the area, using improvements to the transport network to develop plans to make the area an attractive place to live in and an economically sustainable one for jobs.

As part of the research into their proposals, all of the students visited Blackpool to talk to nearby ward councillor and cabinet member for highways and transport Cllr John Jones.

He said: “The council’s view is that improvements to Blackpool South train station, as well as upgrading the service along the South Fylde Line to Preston, could bring economic benefits to the surrounding area.

“We have a healthy partnership with the university which has resulted in this work being carried out and I’m hopeful that joint projects like this will continue in the future.”

“For the students it will be a mutually beneficial experience in terms of both learning from inter-disciplinary cooperation and contributing to a real-life urban regeneration situation outside London.” Blackpool Council has been a key partner in the EU SINTROPHER project where UCL has been the lead partner since 2009. The two tasks involve trying to improve the connectivity of the South Fylde Line for wider regeneration benefits around Blackpool South, and improving the connection between Blackpool North Station and the Promenade by extending the tramway.