Work is set to start soon on a £2.64m community space linking people to nature on Walney.
Invitations to tender for contracts for work relating to the Earnse Hub, have been published.
It is expected that the construction contract will be awarded by the beginning of April. Developing the site is expected to start in April and be finished in early 2026.
The Earnse Bay Outdoor Centre will be built on land owned by Westmorland and Furness Council. It forms part of the Brilliant Barrow initiative – a series of innovative projects funded by £25 million from the Government’s Towns Fund designed to help the town and its communities to thrive into the future.
The 3.37-hectare site will see the creation of a space focused on outdoor activities, free to access trails and an opportunity to camp overnight in a purpose built area.
Jonathan Brook, leader of Westmorland and Furness Council and deputy chair of the Brilliant Barrow Town Deal Board, said: “We have a wonderful opportunity here to create something special.
“Developing this outdoor and skills facility will not only help families to access learning, with beach schools and physical activity on the coastline, but will also provide great new opportunities for the whole of Barrow as a base for exploration of the wider Walney area and its unique natural environment.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing the project take shape and become a valuable facility that the community can be proud of and will be an attraction for others to experience such an extraordinary place.”
Planning permission for the original scheme, which includes an Environmental Education Centre in partnership with Natural England, was granted in early 2023.
The project has now been revisited and refreshed the scheme to better reflect feedback received from the community.
Local residents and school children were previously involved in helping to shape the vision for the site, with extra drop-in sessions held over the summer at North Scale Community Centre and The Forum.
The site, which currently consists of grassland and scrub, with a redundant changing room building and some hardstanding, will be transformed to host a community café building with supporting functions such as a local shop, flexible spaces and toilet facilities for the park, and a camping support building serving the family and group camping area, which will be delivered by Westmorland and Furness Council.
The open space will be wild, with the central meadow retained for unplanned activities. Grasses, herbs and mowing tolerant wildflowers will be introduced, while mown grass paths will crisscross the meadow to connect routes around the site, in and out of wildflower meadows, through willow arches, and scrub and trees. The main paths will be fully accessible.
The Environmental Education Centre, which will be delivered as a second phase to the development, is funded via Defra capital funding and will be led by Natural England.
The centre will provide workshops, classrooms, and meeting rooms whilst serving as a volunteer and operational hub for the Natural England team based at North Walney National Nature Reserve.
Natural England is working with the council, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Art Gene as part of a one-year development project, The Earnse Project, supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund.
That project is currently working to curate activities with communities to ignite their passion and enable more people to connect with the natural world, including exploring the development of an education programme delivered from the beach school, a wide range of volunteering opportunities, engagement with the arts, wellbeing programme and the creation of more biodiverse green spaces with communities across Barrow.
The community camp site will be separated from the park and supported from a camping barn, which provides WC and shower facilities, and kitchen facilities. Simple camping pods and family tents will be available to rent, and some areas for parking small camper vans.
There will also be a community garden, surrounded by hedges, for vegetable growing and orchard activities, with scope for further community-led development.
Quiet, wilder spaces have been introduced in the north eastern part of the site, close to the residential properties of West Shore Park. The margins between West Shore Park residential properties and the park areas have been set aside as wildflower meadows or scrub planting on landscaped mounds, in order to act as a buffer between park activities and quiet residential areas.
Overall planting has been chosen to enhance biodiversity on the site, by providing new hedgerow habitats, and more mixed scrub and grasslands well suited to attract and support house sparrow, common lizard and other species.
