Great Yarmouth Borough Council secures offer of £13.7m towards town centre regeneration
Great Yarmouth Borough Council is progressing redevelopment to transform and revive Great Yarmouth town centre as a vibrant economic, cultural and community hub, after securing an offer of £13.7m investment from the Government’s Future High Streets Fund, with redevelopment of the Market Place soon getting underway.
Artist’s impression of the new Market structure due for completion in 2023
The council worked with a range of key partners, including Great Yarmouth Town Centre Partnership, to develop a successful funding bid for national investment in town centre regeneration, which builds upon the Town Centre Masterplan and complements the vision in the wider Town Investment Plan and Town Deal bid.
The ambition is focussed around introducing more residential, culture and leisure uses, bringing empty buildings back into use, making more of the borough’s rich heritage, and improving linkages and sense of arrival from key gateways and the seafront. The aim is to support town centre sustainability into the future, supporting footfall, further regeneration and investment.
An artist’s impression of the new Library-Learning
Centre in the now vacant Palmers building
The exciting vision includes:
- Relocating the library to a larger building in a more central location, co-located with a new Learning Centre and University campus
- Converting space in empty or under-utilised historic buildings into new homes
- Establishing a new heritage centre
- Redeveloping the Market Place
A vision for a Heritage Centre to be located on
the corner of King Street and Regent Road
Cllr Carl Smith and Cllr Trevor Wainwright, leaders of the council’s main political groups, said: “This is great news for our borough and it’s needed more than ever, as we look forward to continuing to invest in the regeneration and recovery of our place into 2021, with the prospect of further investment through our complementary bid for a Town Deal.
“This positive announcement reflects considerable work with our partners to put together a strong and exciting bid to the Future High Streets Fund, seeking to help make our town centre sustainable into the future with a wider range of uses and making the most of Great Yarmouth’s special strengths, including its cultural heritage and visitor economy.
“Significant Government funding is critical to delivering such transformative change for our town centre, as part of our regeneration vision for the wider borough, and we are delighted to have secured an offer of nearly 70% of the money we asked for from this competitive national pot, which is a huge achievement. We deliberately made our vision scalable for different outcomes and the council has already fully-funded the crucial Market Place redevelopment, with phase one of construction due to start later in 2021.”
Library relocation is part of Town Centre Masterplan
Great Yarmouth Borough Council submits £20m town centre regeneration bid to Government
7 August 2020, 11:06am – Great Yarmouth Borough Council
Artist’s impression of the relocated Library
The council is working with Norfolk County Council to explore opportunities to relocate the strong library offer to a more central location, with the potential to later attract even more people and possibly expand the facilities into a learning hub, working with local schools and colleges. Any library move will be subject to funding, public consultation and a suitable building being secured. Initial conversations are underway with the owners of the former Palmers building. We would like to hear what Great Yarmouth Residents want from their local library.
New homes:
The council has recently submitted a planning application to redevelop The Conge with 89 new homes, providing good quality housing to help meet local needs and create a sense of arrival to the town centre from the railway station. Match funding is sought from the Future High Streets Fund.
The council is also seeking funding towards residential conversion of a number of historic buildings in the Market Place and King Street, which are currently empty or under-utilised. In addition, funding is sought to enable Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust to develop new contemporary houses on eight plots at the rear of King Street, which will improve the street scene and sense of arrival from the car park.
Heritage centre:
Supported by the council, Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust has recently bought the empty former Greenwoods store with plans to convert into a new heritage centre as part of the Future High Streets Fund bid. This will showcase the borough’s rich cultural heritage and act as a gateway building for those seeking to explore the borough’s history.
Low carbon and digital:
In addition to targeted tree-planting, the council is seeking funding for other green interventions in the town centre, including further electric vehicle charging points, future proofing public transport and digital technologies.
