Piel Island hit by grant blow
Last updated at 15:03, Thursday, 29 July 2010
A CRUCIAL £160,000 grant needed to finish the rebuilding of the Ship Inn on Piel Island has been axed by the government.
The money had been agreed by the Northwest Regional Development Agency, but because there was nothing in writing it has been cancelled.
The grant was cancelled amid a round of spending cuts by the doomed agency, acting on government orders.
Barrow Borough Council, which owns the Ship Inn, fears a £280,000 Sea Change grant from a different government department, for improvements to coastal towns, could also be under threat.
One grant depended on matching money from the other.
The Sea Change grant is used to promote Piel and the other islands around Barrow and support the annual Walking Festival.
That would make a total of £460,000 of grant money lost for coastal projects.
The blows are the latest in a flurry of spending cuts disappointments for Barrow.
The biggest blow was the £120m Marina and Waterfront projects being put on ice by the government lockdown of NWDA cash.
The borough council only found out it had lost the £160,000 Visitor Attraction grant a few days ago.
Steve Solsby, the council’s assistant director of regeneration, said: “Only a week and a half ago we were guaranteed the Visitor Attraction grant. It is a big blow to be told it is no longer there. We are desperate to complete what we started on Piel to enhance it for the people who go over there as visitors.
“We are bitterly disappointed about the withdrawal of the Visitor Attraction funding. We wish we would have had a grant funding agreement, but that never happened and, as part of the cuts, it has now gone.”
Mr Solsby said the £280,000 Sea Change programme of grants to help coastal towns make improvements comes through a different department and is administered by an organisation called Cabe.
But the grant was partly dependent on finding matching funds which were expected to come from the Visitor Attraction grant.
Mr Solsby said: “There is a risk that funding could also go. They may say because you have lost that bit you are losing this bit as well, or they may say you can only have a percentage of it. I don’t know.”
He said attempts to get an urgent meeting about Sea Change funding had not succeeded, prompting fears there were uncertainties about that grant too.
He said Barrow Borough Council would have to decide whether it had any other funds it could use or apply for to complete the Ship Inn.
Mr Solsby said: “We are not giving up.”
Three phases of the rebuilding of the King of Piel’s residence, which have cost more than £300,000, have been completed. But extensive work still needs to be completed upstairs, to make the pub habitable as a home and hotel.
The King of Piel, Steve Chattaway, has been forced to live in a caravan on the island for the last three years.
He said: “We are a bit gutted, but we understand there are other avenues to explore, so we have not given up hope.
“There is too much at stake for it not to be completed.
“We will say a few prayers.”
The Ship Inn has been reopened as a pub and restaurant for five weeks.
Mr Chattaway said screening of the Islands of Britain TV series in Canada, Australia and New Zealand meant the island was getting more overseas visitors.
First published at 13:07, Thursday, 29 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Why should the government pay for someones home to be re-built? Or a pub for that matter? I know its heritage, etc but so are the many pubs that close accross the uk everyday. If the business hasn't been up and running in 3 years then questions should be asked about what is going on over there. Very disappointing that something that belongs to the whole of Barrow is entrusted with just a few people and its never checked upon. Wouldn't happen in any other area of life so why here? The government are right not to back it as something so unique as Piel should be self sufficient, it always was before!!
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Yet another example of councils wasting or trying to waste the public's money on commercial projects that will never be commercially viable.
Answer is of course it cannot even if the council blows oodles of ratepayers/taxpayers cash on it and keep on 'subsidising' it.But I have a cunning plan.Pubs are dying on their feet across Britain thanks in the main to the Deborah Arnott inspired blanket smoking ban. Therefore it follows that as mainland pubs are having to close for... wait for it.... lack of customers then exactly how is an isolated pub on a small island in the channel going to be able to attract enough customers to pay it's way?
What the King of Piel should do is withdraw his island from the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
Then he is free to implement whatever smoking policy, health and safety policy, drinking policy he sees fit.
Then he would have a viable public house and would do a roaring trade hiring out rooms, camping grounds etc. He could even install some statics or log cabins to accommodate the hordes of customers he would attract.
Naturally I would like 1% a year commission from all sales, not profits,along with 10p from everybody who makes the ferry cross to and from the mainland, thank you Your Majesty!!
Posted by Frank Davies on 30 July 2010 at 15:11