Cromer Building Restoration Scheme Earns Another Award

North Norfolk District Council has won a major Norfolk conservation award for its scheme for refurbishing buildings and improving the townscape in Cromer during the town's five-year regeneration programme.

The Cromer Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI), which saw £2.5 million spent on buildings that were identified as being in the greatest need of restoration, was a winner in the annual award scheme run by the Norfolk branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The renovated buildings are all in Cromer's conservation area, and include big landmarks like the Hotel de Paris and the Melbourne Hotel, as well as smaller shops and homes.

The awards were presented this week (Wednesday, 8 November, 2006) at County Hall in Norwich. Run since 1980, they aim to inspire and encourage people to take an interest in restoration and contemporary building methods, to keep buildings in use for the sake of Norfolk communities.

Cromer THI also earned the title of best regeneration scheme from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) East of England branch earlier this year, and was shortlisted in the RICS national award scheme (the results of which were announced at a gala ceremony in London last month, and which was won by Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower).

Councillor Hilary Nelson, NNDC's Cabinet member for Built Heritage, said: "We can be very proud of what we have achieved in Cromer, and the owners of the buildings that have been refurbished also deserve great praise for what they have done to help give the town a brighter future.

"It means a huge amount for our efforts to be recognised by all these groups involved in building and conservation, and by local people and national bodies. I would like to thank and congratulate all the people at North Norfolk District Council, our partners in the regeneration programme, and the people of Cromer who devoted themselves to it, who made regeneration a success.

"Our buildings are vital to our local identity and economy," Councillor Nelson stressed. "They are part of the fabric and shape of our daily lives. They are where we live, and where we do business. We have to take care of them if we want our communities to prosper."

ENDS