Green light for Blackpool Airport’s new passenger handling facility

The relocation of a vehicle search point and administrative facility into a 2,300 sq ft temporary modular building at the airport is viewed as a key element to enabling the 50-acre Silicon Sands data centre cluster.

Fylde Council granted planning permission for the scheme, drawn up by Cassidy + Ashton on behalf of Blackpool Council, under delegated powers earlier this week.

The approved application will allow Blackpool Airport to handle up to 45 passengers at a time with a larger security checkpoint at a new location that sits just a little closer to the Blackpool Airport than the currently.

Those services had previously been in two different buildings, both of which sat within the future boundaries of Silicon Sands.

Silicon Sands is a Blackpool Council masterplan, which was formally launched at UKREiiF.

When complete, Silicon Sands is meant to host a series of data centres and offices and industrial space for companies that would benefit from easy access to the data centres.

Sustainability initiatives would include using a district heat network to reuse the heat generated from the data centres, as well as utilising liquid immersion cooling technology to let the centres be more energy efficient.

Blackpool Council also hopes to build a solar farm on the site.

Silicon Sands plays a large role in the council’s ambitions for the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone, which it hopes will create 5,000 jobs by 2041.

You can learn more the passenger handling facility by searching application reference number 24/0435 on Fylde Council’s planning portal.