A HOST of major projects in Whitehaven – including a hotel, apartment block and multi-storey car park – are set to be included in a £165 million funding bid.

Also featured in the ambitious bid, being made by the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership to central government, are upgrades to the coastal railway and improvements to a number of dangerous areas on the A595 through Copeland.

The north of Whitehaven town centre features prominently in the Growth Deal bid – made public yesterday – with Copeland Council and Britain’s Energy Coast including a £11.2 million application towards the scheme to create a 144-room hotel on the empty former bus depot site and a 46-apartment block to replace the dilapidated bus station. If the bid is successful, cash would also go towards the creation of an 800-space multi-storey car park, between the harbourside and Tesco, for use by hotel guests and the general public, as well as a business development on an as-yet unnamed site.

Also included in the bid is a new research centre, laboratories and offices for the National Nuclear Laboratory, development of an employment site at Lillyhall, and cash for tourism, agriculture, skills and flood defence schemes.

The bid is expected to be submitted by the end of July and a decision expected in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Statement.