Hilton Unveils Blackpool Blueprint

British hotel giant Hilton has unveiled plans to transform the old Blackpool Central rail station into a £600m regional casino complete with bars, shops and a conference centre.

Blackpool still has to be granted permission to host one of the UK's eight regional licences and the council would then have to back Hiltons plans.

The operation of a regional casino is paramount to Blackpool Council's regeneration plan.

A spokeswoman for Hilton said: "The benefit to Blackpool would be the regeneration of the Central Station area. We are committed to training and using local suppliers and hope it would arrest longer term decline."

An entertainment lounge is also mooted for the complex, which would have 30 shops and 2,500 car parking spaces. Some 1,000 new jobs are forecast as a result of the scheme, which would also include Hilton's bookmaker arm Ladbrokes.

Reg Haslam, acting head of ReBlackpool, Blackpool's regeneration company, said it would consider bids from other potential operators.

"We welcome their interest and they are clearly serious contenders for a licence if they succeed in securing the support of the council and its partners," he said to the BBC. "However, we are still waiting to assess the other applications and we will judge Hilton's proposals in a fair and transparent way together with those of other operators."