MILLENNIUM plans for a £150m Ocean Dome at New Brighton's old swimming pool site are financially sound - but backers have to be found!

Details of this ambitious indoor waterpark, with retractable roofing, were splashed on Page 1 of the Globe at the Ocean Dome project launch by Wirral Council.

Now financial consultants asked to look into the Dome have come up with the conclusion that it could happen with private sector backing. Funding is the key factor and likely investors are being sought as is the backing of the people of New Brighton and Wallasey.

Wirral's Ocean Dome team is very excited at the prospect of this 2001 water space odyssey. The launch team of Councillor Hugh Lloyd; chairman of the newly-formed New Brighton Steering Group, New Brighton councillor Pat Hackett; council special projects leader Howard Mortimer, and community spokesperson Rusty Keane, all stress that the public must be involved.

Said Coun Lloyd: "We want to know what residents think. The Dome won't be as big as the one in Japan.

"Parking, or park and ride, will have to be looked into. At first, the size of the project looks extraordinarily ambitious and you find yourself thinking can little old New Brighton handle this sort of development?

"But, the more you think about it, the more you feel, maybe we have done ourselves down over the years by not reaching for something that can be achieved."

He added that there are 30 million people within a two-hour drive of New Brighton and that the Dome would not be council-owned but would need private investment and grants. He also stressed that it would create hundreds of jobs and the price to get into the Ocean Dome would be affordable for local people.

The Dome team does not want to build hopes too high, after previous plans for New Brighton never came to anything.

"A feasibility study this Summer is the first stage in a very long process," says Wirral's special projects officer Howard Mortimer.

The 12-point millennium plan for New Brighton includes a more modest New Brighton Tower, botanic gardens, a new leisure area at the bottom of Victoria Road, a new ferry boat jetty, a facelift for the Floral Pavilion, a new hotel, and a 'friendly' land train along the prom from Seacombe to the new pub at the old Derby Pool site.

Meanwhile, a Blue Planet Aquarium nears completion at the ever-growing Cheshire Oaks development at the other end of the M53, off junction 10.

This purpose-built aquarium will house creatures from all over the world and have various themed areas, including a clear underwater tunnel to watch sharks and other fish.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.