Plans for temporary parking at Summerland site

Plans have been submitted to temporarily use the site of the Summerland fire disaster for parking to help Manx Electric Railway and horse tram passengers.

The site was home to the entertainment complex that went up in flames in 1973, killing 50 people.

It has remained empty since 2005 when a replacement complex was demolished, and has been on the open market since 2010.

Now, the Department of Infrastructure is proposing that 32 existing parking spaces are brought back into use over an 18-month period for customers of the horse trams, Manx Electric Railway and local businesses.

Those spaces had been used in 2019 and 2020 during regeneration works of Douglas Promenade.

In its planning statement, it said that the department "continues to receive expressions of interest from parties who may wish to develop the site, marketing continues with the aim of seeing development of part or all of this site within an indeterminate timeframe".

However, in the interim, the department was "approached regularly by individuals and organisations seeking to park on the site," it said.

"It is clear from our observations that the northern end of Douglas Promenade does not offer sufficient car parking on the adopted highways to serve the businesses in this area.

"The department believes that it would be helpful to provide a degree of additional parking for the use of visitors to the area, albeit temporary in nature."

The temporary proposals can "help locally based food and retail outlets and the electric railway or horse trams' customer base to grow without any long term implications for the site," the application added.

For many years, campaigners have been calling for a memorial to be located on the former site of the entertainment complex instead of the nearby Kaye Memorial Gardens.

The plans will be considered by a planning committee at a future date.

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