A major restoration project to breathe new life into the seafront Venetian Waterways in Great Yarmouth will see the whole site closed from Monday, July 23

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is working with the community on a flagship £2.7m project to restore the Grade II-listed seafront attraction.

This will see the Boating Lake and Island Café refurbished and brought back into use, the bridges and shelters restored, and volunteers reinstate the original planting scheme from 1928.

On the advice of the contractor, the whole of the site will be closed from Monday, July 23 in order to ensure the safety of the public, project volunteers and staff during the restoration work.

it had been planned as late as Thursday to close the site from next week, but that was changed.

The works started in earnest last month at the Boating Lake, with contractor Blakedown removing the 1960s extensions to the Island Café, stripping back the flower beds and excavating and cleaning the rockery areas.

Some of the concrete restoration has also started.

Over the coming weeks, work will expand south into the Waterways site, with the first teams of volunteers taking part in hands-on restoration.

From September, volunteers will begin the all-important gardening works to reinstate the original beautiful and bold planting scheme, which will continue through the winter.

Restoration work is taking place over the next 12 months and is funded by a £1.7m National Lottery grant awarded through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund, plus further support from the borough council, New Anglia LEP and the Government.

Barry Coleman, chairman of the council’s economic development committee, said: “The restoration is underway and this will become very obvious over the coming weeks as work expands into the Waterways end.

“We’re well aware the Waterways is currently not looking as it normally would in summer, largely because much of the planting had to be removed ahead of the bird-nesting season, but the new plants will start to go in from September and people will start to notice the exciting transformation.

“We ask for people’s patience during the works and the site closure, which is necessary to ensure public safety.”