Dewsbury Market revamp and creation of a new Town Park will be 're-evaluated' due to inflation, says Kirklees Council

Last year, it was reported that £15m plans for Dewsbury Market were being re-evaluated due to soaring construction costs.

A meeting on Monday, March 6, revealed that the market remains in the same predicament, with similar difficulties relating to elevated costs also hitting plans to create a new Dewsbury Town Park.

The schemes are part of the £50m town centre regeneration and feature in the wider Dewsbury Blueprint.

Plans for the market would see it upgraded with its original features repaired and restored. The council wants to give the market a new lease of life and will include new stalls and facilities.

The new town park plans see a green space centred around the area of Longcauseway. The council says this will improve the attractiveness of the town and give people a reason to spend more time there.

However, at the moment, both schemes have hit a wall as their costs have increased. Now, the council must work with the Government to deliver the schemes as they were envisaged while bringing them back within the original funding envelope.

Coun Elizabeth Smaje (Con, Birstall) asked director of development, Joanne Bartholomew, how long the re-evaluation process would take and whether additional funding would be required.

Ms Bartholomew said: “It’s not unusual across the nation for a number of authorities to be looking at the Town Investment Plan (TIP) projects and the funding.

"Certainly, Covid has changed the nature of what people do within their town centres, construction, price inflation and importation of certain construction materials is making the context in which we operate incredibly difficult.

“That said, we are incredibly confident that the outcomes that we are delivering during the town investment plan and that’s the thing to hold onto – the regeneration of Dewsbury, a place where people can live, shop and work, feel safe, have good experiences, great links to transport around the wider region. We believe we can still meet those aims.

“It’s taking some reshaping to be able to do that and we’re grateful to the support from portfolio holder both in terms of the challenge around that and the Town Deal Board in terms of their flexibility of us working that through.

"We believe that within the next two months we’ll be able to bring back all of the schemes within budget.”

She added: “There is not an opportunity to ask for more money from the Government at this moment in time but we are fairly confident that we can re-work the nine projects and bring them back within budget for the outcomes.”

Simon Taylor, head of town centre programmes, gave a presentation to the ad-hoc scrutiny panel for regeneration outlining the status of the nine key projects used to regenerate Dewsbury’s town centre. The projects are part of the TIP and are as follows:

Dewsbury Market.

Dewsbury Arcade.

Town Centre Public Realm Improvements including a Town Park.

A creative cultural programme.

A building revival grant scheme.

Support to redevelop the Daisy Hill area as a residential area including conversion of Fieldhouse.

Expanded fibre capability.

Support for sustainable transport modes.

Construction skills village.

Aside from the market and town park schemes, Mr Taylor explained that funding options are also being explored for Dewsbury Arcade with an additional £4.5m being sought from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for its restoration.

Coun Eric Firth, cabinet member for transport whose role extends to Dewsbury town centre and markets, said that the key project for him was The Arcade. He explained that the council is “reasonably confident” in being able to secure the lottery funding to support the scheme.

He added: “The people of Dewsbury can’t wait.

"We’ve made so many promises, consulted them almost to death and they can’t wait, as I can’t wait, for things to start moving and once they start moving, things will accelerate and we’ll see a lot of creative things happen in Dewsbury.”