New home needed for Weymouth's 'Centre of Excellence'
A potential site in the town has fallen through
The search is on again to find a home for the promised ‘Centre of Excellence” put forward for Weymouth’s Peninsula site.
The centre is designed to offer training facilities and offices for small to medium-sized businesses and was originally planned for a site of a now demolished building behind the Pavilion.
That building, along with others associated with the previous ferry terminal on the site, have been removed.
Work is said to start soon on new harbourside facilities in the area as part of the regeneration programme.
Corporate director for place services Karyn Punchard said that a potential site for the Centre of Excellence in the town had fallen through and the council was now looking again for another suitable site.
In response to a question from Weymouth councillor David Gray about the security of the funding for the project she said an extension to the financial backing had already been agreed and she saw no cause for concern.
The Centre is part of a wider regeneration project which was awarded a £3.8 million Coastal Communities grant from the government, with Dorset Council matching the funding.
Last October the council said it would still back the project, but wanted to ‘keep options open’ for future use of the harbourside site.
A council spokesman said at the time:
“While the amount of funding we are contributing to the project remains unchanged, we need to gain best value for money for the local community from the development of the area.
“With this in mind, we have determined that building the Centre of Excellence on the Peninsula site needs to be reconsidered.
“This will help keep our options open for opportunities to develop both the Peninsula and harbour, and find premises for the Centre of Excellence that will provide comparable facilities in a location that we feel is more appropriate and doesn’t limit potential future development of the surrounding area.”