Funding boost to plans to transform Ashton town centre

TRANSFORMATIONAL plans to breathe new life into Ashton town centre by looking for future uses for existing buildings and increasing residential accommodation have received a funding boost.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), working with Tameside Council, has successfully secured a £135k Homes England grant to support further masterplan and strategy work to continue to regenerate the town centre - specifically looking at repurposing the shopping centre sites and the adjoining land at the former bus station.

This will complement the work already underway on the market square, town hall and former bus interchange, which is being supported by £20m Government funding.

The Homes England funding will help scope ideas for redevelopment of the town centre in partnership with the Arcades Shopping Centre and Ladysmith Shopping Centre owners. Research work undertaken to date has identified that there is further potential to transform the town centre with a phased mixed-use development with food and drink uses and approximately 500 new homes, featuring a mix of flats and town houses.

This would bring much needed regeneration and economic growth to the area over the long term, improving the Town Centre economically, socially and environmentally and creating a vibrant hub that is well-connected, welcoming, and the heart of a strong community.

However, the work to date has also identified that there are significant commercial and viability challenges in the delivering this vision so the key objective at this stage is to review the masterplanning work and refine the potential approach to reduce the level of public sector investment required and make it an attractive proposal to private sector funders. The funds will be used to carry out the further research rather than costs having to come out of the council’s revenue budgets.

This work is linked with both the Ashton Mayoral Development Zone (AMDZ) and the Long Term Plan for Towns, which has received £20m over a ten-year period and will define the long term strategic plan for Ashton Town Centre.

Ashton town centre is part of the AMDZ alongside Ashton Moss and St Petersfield. The zone and developments within aim to support the transformation of the region by delivering more than 3,000 high quality jobs, approximately 1,500 homes and approximately 150,000 square metres of employment space. St Petersfield has also received £128,000 in GMCA from the Homes England Revenue Department Expenditure Limit (RDEL) fund.

Councillor Jack Naylor, Executive Member, Inclusive Growth, Business and Employment said: “I’m excited about the potential to breathe new life into Ashton Town Centre by repurposing existing buildings and developing residential accommodation to make this a vibrant hub, supporting homes, jobs and the local economy. Viability and commercially of the project is important and this funding gives as a brilliant opportunity to explore options for the future alongside our partners so that we can look to attract further investments around any viable schemes.”

To find out more go to www.tameside.gov.uk/ashtontowncentre