Supporting residents to try and redevelop a piece of amenity land behind North Beach for the good of the community
When? started 2018 through until 2024
Partners: local residents. Hodson Architects.
On the landward side behind North Beach in Cleethorpes is a piece of rough ground favoured by local dog walkers but which has the potential for much more.
The site is rough ground which can be reached from the North Beach promenades or also via the Fuller Street pedestrian bridge and it runs alongside Harrington Street as far down as Suggitts Lane.
Known as the ‘dog leg’ or ‘teardrop’, there have been a group of residents very keen on making more of this piece of land.
The residents group was supported by Big Local North Cleethorpes, through use of meeting space at 82 Grimsby Road and through meeting support and encouragement. The group have cleared up years of accumulated rubbish and regularly started to clean the site to keep it accessible and usable as a local amenity.
The site is owned by the local authority and it was the longer term ambition of the resident group to acquire the site from the Council as an asset transfer (or at least a very long lease) and explore all kinds of opportunities such as rewilding.
Big Local supported the group and this initiative further by allocating some funding in the budget to help invest on the site should permissions be granted. The Development Worker supported efforts to work with the Council regarding leases or asset transfer.
Big Local also engaged and funded some planning work through Hodson Architects. Ideas were drawn up so that something tangible could be costed out and presented if looking for additional funding and for discussions with the Council.
In the end factors completely outside of our control meant that the project never was able to proceed during the lifetime of Big Local North Cleethorpes.
Whilst we had been engaging well with relevant people within the Council who were largely supportive of our approach, a planning application (for an onshore salmon farm) was submitted for the ABP site on the other side of the fence to the ‘pocket park’ areas. What this meant was that, should the application be successful, then environmental mitigation funds from the developer could/might be used to redevelop the ‘pocket park’ area. This essentially meant that until planning and development was completely finalised, the Council were not in a position to proceed with any development or changes to the site the residents were interested in.
This change of circumstances around 2022/2023 essentially closed off the ability of Big Local and the residents to proceed with the project. In 2023 it was therefore decided to reallocate the money set aside for the Pocket Park work to allocate to other local environmental projects instead.
A disappointment that the project did not proceed, but plans do exist for the future should the situation change and the residents are once again able to pursue the project.
A Pocket Park?
The Plan
Working with Hodson Architects and the local residents Big Local supported the production of a new plan/vision for the Pocket Park area.
You can still download the .pdf of this plan here.
