REVEALED: Major plans to breathe new life into Sunderland seafront

Developer Siglion held a two-day consultation event at the Seaburn Centre to give residents and businesses an insight into its plans to put the area back on the seaside tourist map, and create new jobs, leisure facilities and homes.

Siglion is the development company with the £100 million-plus responsibility for regenerating five areas across the city, including Vaux and Chapel Garth, as well as Seaburn.

The company wants to attract more visitors to the seafront, with plans to create new cafes, restaurants, and shops, as well as a hotel and indoor and outdoor leisure areas, and space for events such as food and street markets, arts and craft fairs. The plans also include the creation of new family homes and apartments.

Development director Katie Sully said: "Seaburn has a fantastic heritage as a seaside resort, with a superb three kilometres stretch of sand along to Roker. It still has its promenade, amusement arcades, restaurants, and a hotel.

"Our plans will breathe new life into Seaburn, creating a 21st century seaside resort where people will choose to live, work and visit once again. We want to develop year-round facilities to attract visitors, create jobs and provide attractive housing suitable for families, couples and retired people."

The masterplan for Seaburn includes a new 20-metre wide central boulevard leading down to the seafront, with a pedestrianised area for shops, cafes and restaurants, and a covered space for markets and entertainment.

A new promenade will create car parking for visitors and space for cafes, restaurants, leisure operators and shops.

The plans include space for a large two-storey leisure facility, plus walking routes and play areas at Cut Throat Dene. Siglion is also aiming to attract a new hotel operator and niche specialist shops to the area.

The firm has made a number of changes to the plans following public consultation in October, including cutting amount of new housing by almost a third and reducing the height of buildings along Whitburn Road.

Roker Hotel owner Mark Hird said: "I’ve had a good look at the plans and schemes. I’m very excited about them and would like to be part of that development.

"It’s what the area needs to move forward. We’ve sat with Seaburn being in a limbo state for a period of time. I’m 100 per cent behind the regeneration of it moving forward."

Siglion chairman Neil McMillan added: "We’ve had a great reaction from local people to our ideas for Seaburn and we will be going through their feedback to incorporate their ideas where we can into our final plan for the area.

"This is a fantastic location, with huge potential to attract people from across Sunderland, the North East and nationally."

A short questionnaire about the proposals is available at surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SEABURN2016 and Siglion is asking as many people as possible to complete and return it by March 31 to be included in the feedback report for future action.

The plans, video and questionnaire can all be found at http://shapingsunderland.com/2016/03/14/seaburn-exhibition-keep-giving-us-your-feedback/