£16.5m contract for Barrow’s Marina Village set to be awarded

A firm is poised to be awarded a £16.5 million construction contract for Barrow’s Marina Village.

Westmorland and Furness cabinet members are due to decide on Tuesday, January 21, whether to approve the awarding of the contract to specialist firm Redstart Northwest Ltd.

Redstart Northwest Ltd was appointed last year to complete a two-stage design and build contract for remediation work.

The 26-hectare site between Cavendish Dock and Salthouse Road will provide 808 new homes, a nature conservation area and new public open spaces.

The council said it will e a vital part of Barrow’s wider regeneration agenda, creating a vibrant community and providing new housing in the heart of the town near to centres of education, major employers and local shops and businesses and changing perceptions of Barrow as a place to live.

It added: “The development will strengthen the council’s work with government and BAE Systems as the Team Barrow partnership to ensure that interventions needed to support employment opportunities at BAE Systems are transformational, inclusive and long lasting for Barrow, Westmorland and Furness, and beyond.”

Homes England has pledged £24.8 million to fund delivery of phase two of the site.

Funding through Brilliant Barrow – regeneration funding from the Government’s Towns Fund – has also supported the scheme.

Significant progress has been made in the past three years assembling the land and funding package required to unlock the site’s potential for a large housing development on the site, the authority said.

Phase one of the development – the remediation of six hectares of land funded by £5.5 million secured from the Government’s Getting Building Fund, administered by Cumbria LEP – was completed in November 2023.

The construction phase of phase two of the remediation will include remediation, the installation of associated enabling infrastructure, including a realigned Cavendish Dock Road, to assist future housing suppliers to develop the site, and the diversion or protection of key utilities.

The project also aims to relocate the council’s Salthouse Road waste depot, with a feasibility and outline design study under way relating to a temporary location.

Vegetation and general clearance has been carried out in the phase two area before the start of the breeding bird season. Reptile translocation was carried out in the summer and clearance will prevent recolonisation before the remediation, planned to start in February, begins.