News
A touch of Italy is on the way to a Northumberland fishing port after One North East approved funding to transform a redundant building, creating 14 jobs and boosting tourism.
An Italian style restaurant in the heart of Amble is to be based in the building formally known as the Bread Bin, which closed in January 2009 with the loss of six jobs.
One North East approved just under £50,000 from its Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) for the project after Northumberland County Council officers worked closely with the business to bring forward a suitable funding package. When complete, there will also be two rentable offices available to local businesses.
The project is the brainchild of financial advisor Mark Jones who has worked in Amble for over five years and spotted the potential of the derelict building to give local people a gastronomic and tourism boost.
He approached restaurant entrepreneur and award-winning chef Richard Sim to form the company Zuppa Restaurants Limited which owns Zecca - the name of the new restaurant.
Richard said: “Zecca means ‘brand new’ in Italian which is exactly what we are about. Amble is often described as the poor cousin of Alnwick and we want to try to address that and bring something new to this beautiful place.
“Amble needs to jump on the tourism bandwagon in order to progress but the facilities need to be there for that to happen. Restaurants have been identified as one of the main things that are lacking to benefit local people and attract tourism to take Amble forward as an enticing coastal destination.”
Work has now started on the renovation of the building which includes a complete revamp of the now tired shop front. It is anticipated that Zecca will open by the end of July.
It is hoped the restaurant will have a big impact on tourism in the area. In April 2008, Miller conducted market research on behalf of One North East and Northumberland Strategic Partnership that identified that if Amble is to succeed in attracting more tourism and bring more jobs to the area then it needs more restaurants and visitor accommodation.
Adrian Sherwood, RDPE Manager at One North East, said: “This is great news for all concerned in Amble who will benefit from a new restaurant, office space, local jobs and ridding the town of what could have become an eyesore.
“Zuppa Restaurants put forward an attractive idea to One North East to transform this derelict building and we were happy to give support to provide a new restaurant for local people and create local jobs with the aim of attracting more people to the area having an immediate effect on the local economy.”
Councillor Jim Smith is Executive Member responsible for regeneration at Northumberland County Council. He added: “I am very pleased that the county council is undertaking some very effective work with rural businesses such as Zuppa Restaurants to help them apply for RDPE grants.
“We have more similar applications in the pipeline and at this critical economic time it is good to see our work making a real difference to rural micro businesses as well as to farms diversifying into new enterprises.”
The Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013 is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union, with the aim of delivering targeted support to rural businesses and communities. It is managed in North East England by One North East, Natural England and the Forestry Commission.
The RDPE investment being managed by One North East combines larger projects to help many businesses in different sectors of the rural economy - including bioenergy and land-based skills, and projects adding value to agricultural and forestry products - with smaller investments to help individual businesses to start-up, grow or diversify, and support to develop more sustainable rural communities.
RDPE is part of Solutions for Business, the Government’s package of publicly funded support products offering help to companies to start, grow and succeed. Solutions for Business makes it easier for companies to get the advice and assistance that they need.
For further information on the full package of support, visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast or Tel: 0845 600 9006.
For more information on RDPE in North East England, visit: www.rdpenortheast.co.uk
For more information on RDPE, visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/index_en.htm
http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/index.htm
Ends.
Picture caption: Mark Jones, Adrian Sherwood, Richard Sim, Les Jones and Coun Jim Smith are all looking forward to the opening of Zecca restaurant in Amble
For more information, contact Alison Laggan (press office) on 0191 229 6613 or alison.laggan@onenortheast.co.uk
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