Council bids for Levelling Up funding for station gateway redevelopment
Almost £20m of Government funding is being sought by Stafford Borough Council to transform a gateway to the county town.
The authority is hoping for a share of the Levelling Up Fund, it has been revealed.
Stafford Borough Council submitted a bid last month as part of the second round of the scheme. If the bid is successful the funding will support the delivery of the ambitious Stafford Station Gateway project, which aims to regenerate land next to the railway.
Craig Jordan, the council’s interim head of development, told a committee meeting that if the Levelling Up Fund bid proved successful the money would be used make land earmarked for the gateway scheme “fit for purpose” to enable the development to take place. A decision on the bid is expected later this year.
Around 900 new homes are proposed as part of the scheme, alongside 33,000 sq ft of office space,up to 15,000 square feet of retail and leisure space, up to 106,000 square feet of workspaces and an Innovation Hub. An 80 bed hotel, 350 space multi-storey car park and public open spaces are also part of the plans.
A public consultation is currently under way, seeking views on the project’s Strategic Regeneration Framework. Residents, businesses and councillors have been invited to have their say and around 100 people attended a drop-in session at the Civic Centre on Tuesday (September 6).
Councillors were invited to an information session on Monday (September 5). But concerns have been raised by some community leaders and residents about loss of open space and damage to natural habitat, Councillor Tony Pearce said.
He added: “In particular, concern was expressed that the lovely area known as the balancing pond but called ‘The Lake’ in the document, would be surrounded by houses, flats and a road. A lot of the area has been left to nature.
“You would expect the former rugby club would be developed for housing but you are looking at a large area near the centre of the town which is currently wild and is a home for nature. The only gain from this is the opening up of the Doxey Brook; that is to be welcomed.”
At the latest Economic Development and Planning Scrutiny Committee meeting Councillor James Nixon asked council officers: “It looks like there is going to be a new shopping complex area as part of the scheme. How do you see that impacting the existing town centre?”
Michelle Smith, economic growth and strategic partnership manager, responded: “The intention is that it won’t – any retail on the gateway site will be ancillary to the other uses that are on that site. It is not in any way designed to compete with the traditional town centre at all.”
Councillor Frances Beatty, cabinet member for economic development and planning, added: “What we are doing is making sure there are proper walkways and cycleways into the centre of town so that it is easy to get from that new development into the heart of the High Street.”
Councillor Dee McNaughton asked: “If you don’t get the (Levelling Up funding) how will it affect the project?”
Mr Jordan replied: “We are keeping our fingers crossed that the Government sees this as a good place to invest, given the track record so far on other projects we think we have a good chance. But we are competing with other areas.
“If we don’t get the money we will need to factor that in in terms of our delivery programme and how we work with other partners. At the moment we have a scheme affectively showing a viability gap hence the reason why we are looking to submit a bid for public intervention – if that support isn’t there we would have to look at other sources of finance.”
