Mayor's Ten-Year Growth Plan Highlights Potential For Bridlington Marina

The Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire has unveiled a ten-year economic growth plan that includes proposals for a new marina in Bridlington to boost tourism and private investment.

A newly published ten-year framework designed to grow the economy of the East Riding and Hull could pave the way for a new marina in Bridlington.

The Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, Luke Campbell, has outlined the Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority’s long-term strategy to position the region as a competitive investment destination.

The Local Growth Plan, which has been officially signed off by the Government, seeks to identify key investment opportunities across the area. This prominently features the long-term development potential of Bridlington Bay.

Mayor Luke Campbell said:

"As mayor, my job here is to bring the right people together to cut through any unnecessary barriers that stop us and slow us down from unlocking the potential this region has, because growth only works if our residents benefit from it.

That means better jobs, higher wages, stronger communities, and places we're proud to call home.

A new marina at Bridlington is a chance to bring new life to the coast. It'll boost tourism, support local businesses, and help turn the town into a year-round destination. It also opens the door for private investment in leisure, hospitality, and new homes."

The Mayor's office have illustrated the Marina idea with an AI generated video show what a marina could look like.

Despite featuring in the Mayor's launch video for the local growth plan the Marina itself is not mentioned in the published plan. The strategic document is built around four central pillars, which the combined authority has dubbed the ‘Big Plays’. These focus areas are powering the industrial future, backing local business, building skills and good work, and connecting and enabling growth.

Mayor Luke Campbell outlined the economic foundations supporting the new strategy.

Mayor Luke Campbell said:

"We have a £16 billion economy, with manufacturing playing a bigger role here than most parts of the UK.

We have established supply chains and skilled workforce. Above all, we have the capacity to support large scale investment.

Our local growth plan sets out a practical common-sense approach that sets us up for a long term growth. It brings together our key sectors and reinforces what's behind them. It's realistic about what we need to do, and recognizes that growth doesn't happen by chance."

To support the four central pillars, the combined authority has included ‘Big Play Delivery Plans’ to explain how each objective will be actioned. For the 'backing local business' pillar, the authority states it will identify and support industries and firms that have significant potential to drive future growth.

The combined authority says it also aims to connect these firms directly to the supply chains of growth-driving sectors, ensuring they are supported to meet their full potential.

Bridlington is identified as a key location for strategic growth and investment, primarily through the Bridlington Bay Opportunity Study. This study is a priority for the region and aims to reimagine the area's long-term economic potential by taking a fresh look at onshore and offshore opportunities across sectors such as the marine and offshore industry, tourism and leisure, agri-food, housing, and skills.

The plan outlines several specific roles and challenges for Bridlington:

• Housing Development: The town is a priority site for the region’s housing accelerator pipeline. Specifically, land at Easton Road has been identified with a total indicative capacity of 700 units.
• Visitor and Creative Economy: Bridlington is recognised as a major regional attraction within the culture and visitor economy. It is also identified as a primary urban location where the creative industries—particularly creative digital technology and services—are expected to grow.
• Digital and Infrastructure Challenges: While the wider region has strong gigabit broadband coverage, Bridlington is specifically noted as an area showing risks of digital exclusion. As a coastal community, it also faces challenges regarding transport connectivity and environmental risks, such as flooding, which can limit access to jobs and services.
• Economic Mapping: The town is a notable point for Gross Value Added (GVA) per hectare within the East Riding's geography.

Regarding your previous interest in a marina, it is important to note that while the Opportunity Study explicitly assesses the "marine" and "tourism and leisure" sectors for growth, the specific term "marina" does not appear in the provided plan documents.

Addressing the scale of the plans, Mayor Luke Campbell said:

"Yes it’s ambitious, but it should be. We can get there, we can do it. Everything in the Growth Plan is possible. That’s the exciting thing. There’s nothing in there that’s unrealistic."

Alongside the potential developments on the Yorkshire Coast, the strategy details sites within the East Riding with high potential for future housing. This includes land south of Thorpe Hall in Howden, which the document claims has a capacity to accommodate over 1,800 homes.

Improving public transport networks is also a priority for the mayoral team, drawing inspiration from established combined authorities such as Greater Manchester's Bee Network.

Mayor Luke Campbell said:

"We’re in the process of setting up consultations and me going round the region, talking to people on the doorsteps, talking to local Parish Councils and residents on what their needs are for transport and what’s missing. All that residents are after is a reliable, affordable way for them to get from A to B as smooth as possible."

"We do a lot of services to York from Market Weighton and Beverley, they’re always busy. But I want to drive our economy towards Hull. I want people in the region to spend in the region. I don’t want to drive people out of the region to go spend in York, Sheffield, Leeds, or Manchester."

Other key investment opportunities identified in the strategy include the Humber Freeport sites in Goole and Hull, as well as the major regeneration of Hull’s Western Docklands.