Delivery of Huddersfield and Dewsbury Blueprints set to ramp up with £100million investment
£100million investment plan for Huddersfield and Dewsbury Blueprints gets green light
Kirklees Council’s Cabinet has approved a £100million investment which will help deliver key town centre regeneration projects as part of the Huddersfield and Dewsbury Blueprint plans.
In June 2019 the council launched its Huddersfield Blueprint plan and followed this up in February 2020 with the unveiling of its Dewsbury Blueprint.
The council has been working to bring both visions to life and an update on progress and an overview of the next steps was presented to Cabinet on 22 September 2020.
Cabinet Members voted to back the transformational funding plans for both town centres.
For Huddersfield, up to £75million will be invested to deliver a number of key projects. This will be allocated towards a new Sound Space music venue, improvement works to the public realm, a new multi-storey car park at Market Hall, repair works to the George Hotel which will become a new National Rugby League Museum, refurbishment of shopfronts and more.
Projects in Dewsbury will have £26million allocated. This will help to deliver the refurbishment of Dewsbury Arcade which the council has now purchased, public realm and shopfront improvements, public art projects, help to refurbish the library building, new street lighting and more.
The council will continue developing and delivering these projects and work will also continue to plan other significant regeneration plans for both towns.
In addition to this £100million investment, Kirklees Council is looking to secure a further £18million in match funding to help deliver both Blueprint plans, with bids also submitted for additional grants.
Read the full Cabinet report on the council’s website.
Councillor Peter McBride, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, said: “When we launched our plans for Huddersfield and Dewsbury town centres, our intention was to get to work and bring them to life and this level of investment shows that we mean business.
“Our Blueprint visions are long-term and on a large-scale. This investment is just the start of an incredibly exciting regeneration journey for our town centres with further plans being worked on.
“We can now begin to develop and deliver these key projects and start to create the thriving town centres local people and businesses deserve.
“I would like to thank all the thousands of residents who took the time to view our plans for Huddersfield and Dewsbury and shared their thoughts with us as part of the consultation period. Something that remains important to us moving forward is working with local people to make sure we get this right for them. As we move on to deliver individual projects, we will continue to ask for your input so we can shape our future together.”
You can read more on the Huddersfield Blueprint and Dewsbury Blueprint on our website.
If the image is anything to go by then what is planned is an unimaginative, bleak, wind swept wasteland. It shows none of the characteristics of successful placemaking. Look at the new park planned at Leeds South Bank, look at Bradford’s Mirror Pool – both great exemplars of the art of the possible. I’m afraid what is shown here is nowhere near as compelling.
Why Huddersfield and Dewsbury? what about North Kirklees or has the so called Cabinet forgotten it really does exist and what will happen to the roads when all this money is being spent. Probably nothing as usual.
yet again the lion`s share goes to Huddersfield, with a much lesser amount to Dewsbury.
Do the council know that Batley, Heckmondwike and Birstall exist?
If the shops on the Piazza and in the Market Hall will no longer be there, I will probably not be visiting Huddersfield Town Centre much. These used to be some of the most commonly visited areas by many shoppers. They are now run down with many empty shops and are an eyesore. Huddersfield will not have much to attract visitors at all when this area is altered. It has been a convenient and pleasant shopping area over the years, which is located near to the bus station and car parks. If the shops are further away from the bus station/railway station, this is not going to help visitors. Supporting the survival of the shops we have in Huddersfield and to improve the shop fronts should be a priority. Huddersfield Centre is already in decline and has little to offer shoppers. I am afraid the ‘improvements’ will be extremely costly but offer no incentive for people to shop/visit Huddersfield any more.
I thought they were supposed to be short of money? Services for the most vulnerable in society keep getting cut, but there’s money for this luxury and, of course, the pay rise that councillors have just voted for themselves.
But why start with spending £millions on moving traders and creating a ‘sound space music venue’? This council has too much money to (mis)spend when so much needs doing in our town centre.
Life has moved away from town centres to the suburbs. Spend money improving the environment for where people live and visit now in the suburbs.
Well I think it’s great news – great to have to have something to be positive about in these times! Well done everybody involved.
As always Dewsbury gets the scraps, why not share the money equally, totally agree with the overgrown vegetation covering road signs and sprouting on the roadsides,– instead of ”re-vamping” the market for the umpteenth time why not flatten it- put a multi storey car-park on the site with a smaller market on the ground floor. then get rid of the empire building and replace it with a proper shopping centre down to the broadway building stop living in the past tarting up the old buildings
This is great news. I hope these developments are complemented by thinking about the entrances to all of our towns. In Huddersfield, Halifax Road, with its beautiful mature trees gives a great impression to all visitors, commuters and residents. It would be such a shame to lose these assets, which is currently what is being considered in separate council deliberations. Let’s keep our towns thriving and beautiful.
As part of the Rates System for shops could you introduce tidying up the shop fronts? No horrendous multi coloured advertising, no stick on the pavements. Surely the names of shops indicated what they are selling. Heckmondwike used to be such a lovely town now it is a cheap relative.
I totally agree with your comment Ms Winterburn. Dewsbury is a disgrace, so much rubbish around. I live in Dewsbury but I hardly go there. Who’s idea was is the tacky flower pots?
Sadly Dewsbury treated as the ‘poor relative’ once again. Kirklees have starved Dewsbury (which actually means ‘God’s Fort’) of investment.
I totally agree about the overgrown vegetation on highways – it is an eyesore. This, together with the inordinate amount of litter at the sides of the roads, is unsightly throughout most of Kirklees. Whoever decided on the (a) design and (b) usage of the horrendous, enormous, Daisy themed flowerpots that have appeared in Dewsbury, wants their head examined. The planters are full of dying plants, cigarette butts, plastic bottles and other detritus, and I have heard several derogatory comments from shoppers and shopkeepers about them. What a complete and utter waste of money at a time when all areas need to make every penny count in a positive way. Hang your head in shame whoever thought these tacky monstrosities were a good idea or, more importantly, a good use of public money. They are neither.
Perhaps our Council needs another reminder that Kirklees is more than Huddersfield.
Perhaps before planning on these ideas, they should look after overgrown vegetation on highways, footpaths etc.