The scheme to transform Blackpool’s rundown Flagstaff Gardens (opposite The Sandcastle Waterpark)  has been approved by Blackpool Councillors. The new complex, built from 19 shipping containers, will  sell street food and provide outdoor seating along with live music in the central space. The intention is to create a  family-friendly venue to offer a range of international options from the street food stalls. The developers behind Southbeach Streetfood aim to open for business in February 2024 after Blackpool Council’s planning committee agreed their application to install 19 shipping containers on the site.

After the Committee heard the investment would help regenerate the area, the members decided not to accept recommendations by planning officers to refuse the application on the grounds it could fuel obesity,

Developer Nick Lowe, who together with Jamie Willacy and Andrew Bradshaw, plan to invest around £750,000 in the project said: ‘We are very pleased to have been given the backing of the planning committee who said they believed in us. During the meeting we were able to set out our proposals in detail and show the food we will serve will be healthy, but also enjoyable. The planning committee shared our vision that we can spearhead regeneration in South Shore, and we are now looking forward to opening Southbeach Streetfood next February.”

Shipping Containers are being used as any development in Flagstaff Gardens must be moveable due to the location of water tanks beneath the site which United Utilities need access to. The developers  say they are going to make sure the site is “aesthetically pleasing” – by painting the containers in pastel colours and using lighting and green landscaping. Whilst most of it is outdoors, some of it could be tented.

Southbeach Streetfood hopes to open at least 200 days a year, including during the Illuminations and in the run up to Christmas. The developers add, ‘We expect to be able to offer year-round employment where staff are retained even when the venue closes for the winter period. The aim is to provide fair and considerate employment. It is not our intention to utilise so-called zero-hour contracts for any staff.’