WARRINGTON residents, businesses and visitors are being encouraged to share their views and suggestions on Warrington’s £22m Town Deal projects, following on from a town-wide engagement campaign in early 2020.
In August 2020, Warrington’s Town Deal Board – a group of business, political, leisure, cultural, community and education leaders – submitted a pioneering Town Investment Plan (TIP) to support Warrington’s ambitious future.
The TIP was shaped through detailed discussions with key stakeholders, alongside a Warrington-wide public engagement campaign, ‘My Town’, which gathered the views and ideas of residents across the borough. The TIP sets out plans to use funding as part of the national Towns Fund initiative to make improvements in Warrington’s town centre and beyond.
In October, £22m funding was confirmed to allow Warrington to take forward seven truly transformative projects that will engage, inspire and connect our communities for generations to come.
The council need public feedback again.
Despite public feedback helping to shape the council’s bid for the town’s seven key Towns Fund projects, a Warrington-wide survey has been launched again, to capture further suggestions and to make sure progress against each project aligns with the views of residents, businesses and key stakeholders.
The seven key projects requiring further feedback are:
·A health and social care academy – which will offer opportunities to build a social care workforce in Warrington fit for the future.
·An advanced construction & civil engineering (ACCE) centre – which will deliver skills, training and professional qualifications for the construction, nuclear and allied industries
·A health and wellbeing hub in the town centre – for people to access a range of services, from general health advice and guidance, to mental health support and clinical services
·A new bus depot – relocating the Warrington’s Own Buses Depot from its current site to a purpose-built new depot on Dallam Lane. This scheme has already received £1m accelerated funding.
·A sustainable travel programme – putting in place the right infrastructure to encourage more walking and cycling throughout the town centre
·A digital enterprise hub – to support all aspects of digital and disruptive technologies
·A remastered cultural hub at the Pyramid Arts Centre – which will nurture the arts professionals of the future, providing a modern and flexible creative space to collaborate, produce, present and perform
Chair of Warrington’s Town Deal Board and MD of Muse Developments, Matt Crompton, said: “In October last year, we received the welcome news of the £22m funding allocation to take forward our ambitious schemes in Warrington. These projects will bring benefits for generations to come, and we are very grateful for the feedback of our residents in helping to shape our initial proposals.
“It’s essential, however, that we keep listening to views, ideas and suggestions. We need to know we are still on the right track, and whether there are other aspects to each project that we need to consider. To that end, I hope as many people as possible take the time to complete the brief survey we have launched, so that we can gather as much feedback as possible to continue shaping a Town Deal that works for the whole of Warrington.”
Cllr Russ Bowden
“Warrington’s Town Deal is a great example of how harnessing partnership work across the town can generate some truly transformative outcomes.”
You can read about Warrington’s Town Deal, find out about each of the seven key projects and complete the public survey at warrington.gov.uk/my-town
