Issue - meetings

To update the Panel on progress being made on the Local Centres programme.

Contact:  Joanne Bartholomew, Service Director, Development and Simon Taylor, Head of Town Centre Programmes

Cllr Graham Turner, Portfolio holder, introduced the agenda item, advising that the appended report, outlines progress on small town centres. There are four town centres being concentrated on with the possibility of a fifth, looking longer term at Marsden in light of some funding that has been received. There has been a lot of work to get to this stage and some are more advanced than others and some have been more challenging, however progress is being made.  Some extra funding has been levered in to help deliver these, with the cost pressures, the external funding has to be welcomed.

Simon Taylor, Head of Town Centres Programmes advise the Panel that in summary, it is four towns, Batley, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Holmfirth, four continuous engagement programmes and four projects to get off the ground.  This programme is the council trying to strengthen local centres, recognising those are important places for people to live, work and do business.  It is an important program that is being expanded to include a fifth centre, Marsden.  The Panel was given a breakdown on the progress being made in each of the centres.

In summary;

Batley

Batley has been overtaken by a levelling up process and in many ways it is one of the success stories of starting to develop plans and programs in a particular area.  Without the initial work that had been carried out, around local centres, the levelling up bids in round two would have been weak.  It has gone from a small allocation of £2.5 million and that has been increased to £14.38 million, which is a great achievement and work is on with developing that.

In terms of the process undertaken in Batley, place standard exercises were carried out early, which was used to inform the master planning process.  Some extra work had also been carried out in Batley as there was some extra funding, and this gave a clear idea of what people were wanting around their town centre.  This information was fed into the masterplan, and engagement on that was undertaken last year.

In terms of Batley, the programme is concentrating on Commercial St, which is the main street that runs through the middle of Batley, and also looking at how to improve Marketplace.

Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton was one of the programs that got off the ground quickly.  A scrutiny session was held early this year, at the end of the master plan program, and then followed an almost identical process to Batley.   One place standards engagement was held using the ward councillors as key reference points,  and now there is a completed master plan and a number of key schemes that ward councillors and communities want to be delivered.  The schemes identified for development and delivery include Savoy Square and Market, Spen Bottom and Market Square.

Heckmondwike

Heckmondwike is slightly behind the others, and is just at the end of the masterplan consultation period, which ended on the 19^th June 2023, and the team are examining all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8