Major plans to demolish a Hayling Island amusement park and café and build houses and shops in their place have been submitted to council planning chiefs.
Applicant Warren Peak, of Linland Ltd, has submitted plans to Havant Borough Council to demolish the existing buildings at Beachlands amusement arcade to build two new identical buildings of shops and flats.
It is hoped this will boost the Beachlands area which developers said has long suffered with a lack of investment.
The demolition will make way for four shops and 32 flats over four floors, with a “boardwalk” between the buildings straight onto the beach, a design, access and heritage statement submitted to the council said.
The plans are also said to be inline with the council’s vision for the regeneration of the Hayling Island seafront as developers aim to create a gateway to Hayling seafront, an arrival destination.
“A place that offers community uses, food and drink facilities and events space,” the document added.
The plans also aim to improve tourism in the heart of Hayling Island year-round, by creating watersport opportunities in the birthplace of windsurfing, building new homes including affordable housing, restoring coastal car parking areas, and creating new jobs in leisure and tourism, said planning documents.
Around 30 or 40 per cent of the homes would be affordable, plans said, and the first floor of each building will have eight, two-bedroom flats. The second and third floors will have eight, three-bedroom maisonettes. The lower floor will have two bedrooms and the living areas while the main bedroom will be on the upper floor.
The materials planned are render and cedral fibre cement boarding for the walls and metal cladding for the roof.
The Beachlands site is currently formed of three parts: the funfair, Funlands; the amusement arcade and café where these changes are planned; and the former bus stop facilities building. Funland will not face any changes as part of this scheme.
On the decline of Beachland, a report said: “Lack of investment on-site and in the surrounding location, although perhaps inevitable with less trade, has led to a need to rethink, renew and regenerate the Beachlands area.”
If the plans get the go-ahead, developers hope investment will be found to replace rides at Funlands and upgrade the seafront area with a further housing development by Havant Borough Council.
The council has set March 19 as a target date to make a decision on application APP/24/00968.
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