Town Hall View: Developments will mean so much for the city
One of the questions I get asked the most by councillors and residents is when we will start to see cranes on the skyline and spades in the ground for some of our exciting growth projects, writes city council leader Dennis Jones.
For the Station Quarter project, the answer is this Autumn, which is incredibly exciting because once completed it will transform that gateway into the city.
At this week’s Cabinet meeting we made decisions on a number of other growth projects, allowing them to progress to the next stage.
One such scheme is the regeneration of the former TK Maxx and New Look building in the city centre. Cabinet members approved a marketing exercise for the unit which will begin shortly.
We originally purchased the building back in August 2020 using £4.1m Towns Fund grant funding and the original plan was to use the site to develop The Vine there, offering an enhanced library, learning, and cultural offering as well as a commercial offer.
Unfortunately, the costs of providing such a facility at this one location exceeded the budget available due to challenging market conditions at that time. As a result, The Vine is now set to be delivered across three sites instead. At this week’s Cabinet meeting, members gave the go-ahead for this scheme to progress, including awarding contracts to refurbish both Central Library and Peterscourt.
Our new plans include a library, learning and cultural offer at Central Library, a food and drinks hall at The Goods Shed in Fletton Quays, and a business start-up incubator at Peterscourt.
Developing the TK Maxx and New Look Building into something better is vitally important for us. It’s imperative that we get this right, so we can breathe new life into this part of our city and enhance the overall experience for people.
Although we are inviting all offers, selling as a mixed-use scheme of residential and commercial will help achieve our housing targets, providing good quality accommodation in the heart of our city centre, and increase footfall along Bridge Street.
Through the marketing exercise we are looking to attract the right buyer who can offer a scheme bringing vitality and diversity to our city centre whilst improving the appearance of this site.
I was delighted to learn this week that three city parks, Central Park, Itter Park and Manor Farm Park in Eye have each been confirmed as having maintained the sought after Green Flag award. Central Park has now retained the award for an impressive 23rd consecutive year!
This is testament to the hard work and dedication of the teams at Aragon, who have maintained these much-loved spaces to such high standards. I’d also like to thank the volunteer groups who support these parks.
In other news, a reminder to have your say as part of an engagement survey that is live until Sunday (20 July) on Local Government Reorganisation.
Retaining the local in local government is important to me too, so that residents continue to be served by councils and councillors with local knowledge to ensure the needs of local people and their needs continue to be met. Please take our short survey – it only takes around 10 minutes to complete and is available on the council’s website.