With plans for creating new facilities at Cosy Corner in Porthcawl continuing to make progress, Bridgend County Borough Council has revealed an early concept which demonstrates how it hopes to invest more than £1.8m into the iconic seafront location.
A funding application for £1m has been submitted to Visit Wales, and the council has agreed to match this with an additional £885,000.
As the terms of the funding grant requires the council to provide community facilities while also creating fresh employment opportunities, the plans for Cosy Corner include an all-new stone and glass-clad building which will feature new premises suitable for retail and start-up enterprises.
The council also wants to create new meeting space for community use, a parade square for the Sea Cadets and an office for the harbour master as well as changing facilities for users of the nearby marina.
If funding allows, plans are in place that will further enhance the scheme with new landscaping, public seating, a children’s play area and a canopy structure capable of providing comfortable outdoor shelter from rain and the sun.
In addition to supporting the council’s ongoing plans for the development of the Salt Lake and Esplanade areas, the plans for Cosy Corner are intended to complement other regeneration projects such as the new marina, new sea defences, the recently restored Jennings Building, forthcoming improvements to the eastern breakwater and more.
The Cosy Corner site is in urgent need of attention following the departure of contractors who worked on the former maritime centre project. We want to take this opportunity to use available funding to not only address this, but to create all-new facilities that will benefit residents and visitors alike.
It is important to note that our plans for Cosy Corner have to be realistic and capable of being delivered within certain parameters, one of which is that we must work within a narrow budget which incorporates the £1m grant funding that Visit Wales previously planned to provide to Credu for their maritime centre development. As a result, we will focus on providing the main facilities at Cosy Corner first before looking at how the area can be further enhanced. An early concept for how the completed site could look has been produced in order to provide greater certainty around costs as part of the funding process. While the designs could change further as we get deeper into the project, they demonstrate our ambitions for transforming Cosy Corner into an area of full community use.
Cosy Corner is in a prime seafront location, and we want to ensure that it becomes an important part of the public realm within Porthcawl rather than a site for housing or other developments. We will be organising a public engagement event later in the year to provide more details and an opportunity for people to comment on the plans before they are finalised.
Councillor Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration
