Seaham Town Centre

The redevelopment of the historic heart of Seaham is the largest, single project in a 10-year plan to revitalise the coastal town following the cessation of coal mining in the 1990’s. A multi million pound programme of physical regeneration projects linking transport improvements, new housing and commercial development opportunities on reclaimed coalfield land, together with environmental and public realm improvements, will be cemented by a major new retail facility.

Working in conjunction with Easington District Council, One NorthEast has been instrumental in relocating Seaham Harbour Dock Company’s warehousing facilities from a key 13-acre site occupying a position between the main shopping zone and the port. The Dock Company now occupies a reclaimed site to the south of the town with new, purpose built cargo handling facilities.

Modus Properties of Manchester has been selected as the chosen developer for this major opportunity and will redevelop the site with 5,570 sq m (60,000 sq ft) of food retail space, a further 5,570 sq m (60,000 sq ft) of non-food retail, ancillary commercial opportunities and a selection of high quality apartments and town houses.  Construction works are expected to start in September 2006 with the first shops programmed to open in late 2007/early 2008.

Effective partnership working

One NorthEast aims to work with partners to agree strategic priorities and encourage more effective partnership working across local authority boundaries. To demonstrate how effective this can be, we have produced a short film about the success story at Seaham.  The town faced complex issues following the coal pits’ demise 15 years ago: outdated housing, a lack of retail facilities, swathes of contaminated, derelict land and poor transport links.

A committed and determined alliance, from the community and local authorities, the agency and English Partnerships, led to the reclamation of the colliery sites, the town centre’s transformation into a retail development and the appointment of developers for nearby employment sites.  This link will take you to the video of the progress made so far.