Kirklees advances Dewsbury proposals
Working with BDP, the local authority has submitted detailed plans to revivify the town’s market, park, Foundry Street and retail arcade areas.
The linked market and town park projects are both elements of the Dewsbury Blueprint, the format under which the council is looking to improve towns across the borough.
Town park
This is the first time detailed plans for the park have been shared, and include aspirations for the largest green space in the town centre, and dedicated play areas, partially enclosed. Water features could be involved.
The town park is intended to “transition smoothly into the market’s outdoor offering” – with an outdoor food and drink offering, and demountable stalls to allow for both an outdoor market area and a flexible event space.
This will then transition into the indoor market, which will also have increased flexibility, while retaining its structure and character.
Dewsbury Market
The overall goal is to create a more varied, day-to-night offering on top of the traditional market offer. Although plans have already been shared in November last year, consultation has continued with traders and the public.
Kirklees signed off £8.3m for the market project in March 2021, with a further £6.6m being levered in through the Towns Fund later that year, enabling the £15m scheme to move ahead.
The market’s outdoor area will be flexible once updated. Credit: Kirklees Council
Foundry Street and Dewsbury Arcade
The area surrounding the connected park and market will also benefit, with Foundry Street in particular earmarked for greening, and to become more pedestrian-friendly.
Neighbouring Dewsbury Arcade is set to reopen next year, around the same time work on the market and park is due to begin. The whole space – which, once completed, will also greatly increase the number of trees in the town centre, said the council – will be visible from the ring road, creating an improved visual impression.
Kirklees Council said it and BDP have been working with the Dewsbury Town Board to develop designs.
Cllr Graham Turner, cabinet member for finance & regeneration, said: “Once we unveiled our updated plans for Dewsbury Market, the adjoining park was very much the missing piece. These are both aspects of the town we know local people greatly care about, and they have a huge part to play in Dewsbury’s future.
“The planning application we’ve just submitted marries these two key elements within our Dewsbury Blueprint, and shows how different this part of town is going to look within the next few years – not even taking into the account the amount of work we’re doing elsewhere in the town centre.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time for Dewsbury, these plans confirm our commitment to delivering investment to regenerate Dewsbury over the next few years and I can’t wait for us to get started.”
In another of Kirklees’ Blueprint schemes, work started in August on a town centre access plan in Holmfirth, a £10.3m project that includes the demolition of the market hall, to be replaced by a new events-focused facility.
