It’s 8.30am and you leave your new eco efficient home and take a stroll just over the road to the transformed Belgrave House, where your creative business is located.
You have a meeting in in one of the pods on the rooftop and before you know it, it's lunchtime and so you leave the office and take just a short walk to the Greyfriars Amphitheater where you meet a friend for a sandwich and coffee, before a quick stroll round the adjacent Greyfriars Park.
After work you head the short distance home, chatting to neighbour Elsie in the new later living complex before getting back for a quick dinner before you’re off out again - this time to the transformed corn exchange, where you watch a local band with your mate Rick who lives in the communal living block. Afterwards you head through the brightly lit and landscaped Emporium Way for a quick browse of the late night market before it's back home.
This of course is not Northampton today, but an imagined step inside the vision for the regeneration of the North end of Northampton’s town centre which will replace the rundown concrete landscape which until 2015 contained the infamous brutalist bus station ingloriously dubbed the ‘Mouth of Hell’.
An artist impression of the Greyfriars scheme.
This month the second consultation on the grand greyfriars masterplan began, launched with a new interactive plan, which takes the viewer through the route of the proposed new urban scheme.
But behind the aspirational drawings and the words, there is no costing (not public anyway) and more importantly no cash has been secured to knock down and rebuild. £4.2m had been allocated from the £24.9m town’s fund pot to the Emporium Way regeneration, but this money was transferred last year to the Market walk shopping centre scheme and the Stack leisure project.
Back in February, after the first consultation had finished, NN Journal asked the West unitary how the Greyfriars scheme was going to be paid for.
The council told us:
“The overarching cost for the scheme has not been determined this early on. As with all complex regeneration schemes the site will be phased over a number of years with a mixture of public and private investment. The work that is underway will help assess the delivery options and strategy for funding.”
The council also said that a development partner would be sought to help the council deliver the vision.
Studio Egret West, a London-based urban design company which is currently involved in a scheme to remodel Earls Court, have been given a contract for £191,816 (according to the authority’s contract register) to create the design masterplan.
When we asked for more detail on this in February the council said:
“The project is being funded by West Northants Council and Homes England, with Homes England (the Government’s Homes and Regeneration Agency) funding £80k.
“WNC has appointed a consultancy team, led by master planners who have extensive experience of place shaping and delivering development. They will work with the Council to identify a phased delivery strategy.”
The new consultation - which is open to feedback until June 9 - says after this second consultation a plan funding bid can be drawn up.
The Greyfriars area as it stands today.
The website says:
“The masterplan will be used to develop a business case for funding. It will be used to speak to funders such as the Government and Homes England as well as meetings with developers and investors. Then we can start to plan on how we want to deliver the proposals for Greyfriars.”
It continues:
“Not everything can be delivered at once. The site will need to be split into phases and delivered over a period of time. We see this as a five to ten year project.”
Cabinet member for town centre regeneration Dan Lister, has called the consultation ‘an exciting step forward’ but the opposition have concerns. If the Conservative party lose at the upcoming general election, then the hope of the Conservative-led unitary securing any government cash could also be lessened.
Leader of the Labour group on West Northamptonshire Council Wendy Randall says:
“I just think that it is a vision and without any money, it is not going ahead. Where is the money going to come from? The government? It will cost millions and millions.
“Don’t raise people’s expectations for something that is never going to be delivered. The development of the town centre seems piecemeal. What are they trying to achieve?
Lib Dem group leader Sally Beardsworth is equally sceptical.
She says:
“They are bringing forward this plan, but it is just a dream unless you have the funds to back it up.
“Unless you have a costed plan you are just raising expectations, but it could take years. I have always believed in not making promises that you can’t keep.”
Cllr Beardsworth (left) and Cllr Randall (right)
What do you think?
Please give us your thoughts below on whether you support the Greyfriars scheme?
Have already asked this question re funding in the WNCC consultation document - and it took four attempts over a week to get into it - as well as asking how the businesses in the Grosvenor and the proposed Belgrave House are going to be serviced with goods, supplies etc and how their rubbish will be removed since it looks as if the area between dwellings and businesses will be pedestrianised; the development of the Corn Exchange has stalled during the last 5 (?) years due to the various emergency services pointing out the severe difficulties in evacuating the building securely - we surely do not want another night club fire and panic! On the whole this proposal is a fairy tale vision without practical outcome and no funding.
What do you expect from the same Conservative councilors who bankrupted the previous authority? Financial incompetence and broken promises. Bring on the May elections.
Have already asked this question re funding in the WNCC consultation document - and it took four attempts over a week to get into it - as well as asking how the businesses in the Grosvenor and the proposed Belgrave House are going to be serviced with goods, supplies etc and how their rubbish will be removed since it looks as if the area between dwellings and businesses will be pedestrianised; the development of the Corn Exchange has stalled during the last 5 (?) years due to the various emergency services pointing out the severe difficulties in evacuating the building securely - we surely do not want another night club fire and panic! On the whole this proposal is a fairy tale vision without practical outcome and no funding.
What do you expect from the same Conservative councilors who bankrupted the previous authority? Financial incompetence and broken promises. Bring on the May elections.