Bolton to expand regeneration team
Restructuring the way it approaches economic development and placemaking, the local authority will soon have 20 staff dedicated to focussing on these key topics.
Bolton Council has announced that it has created a regeneration and economic development team, charged with bringing the council’s Vision for 2040 to fruition.
This vision includes building 2,000 homes and creating 4,000 jobs, with a goal to work alongside the private sector to craft a £1bn investment pipeline in the town centre.
The regeneration team will help coordinate a series of large-scale projects in the town, from Peel’s £250m plans for Hulton Park to Watson Homes’ £75m Church Wharf transformation.
They will also explore the creation of a town centre heat network and an autonomous vehicle network connecting the nearby hospital to the town centre. Establishing the council’s economic growth and resilience plan is on the to-do list as well.
The team that will be headed up by Paul Whittingham, the assistant director of economic development and regeneration. The group falls under the remit of Bolton Council’s director of place Jon Dyson.
The initiative will see the regeneration staff at the council grow by six, with recruitment already started for two roles: major development service manager and economic development service manager.
“Now is the perfect time to establish a new team to oversee our existing projects and to make sure we are making the most of the momentum behind Bolton’s regeneration,” said Cllr Akhtar Zaman, deputy leader of Bolton Council.
“The direct intervention of the council, by investing £100m to acquire and transform underused sites, has created confidence in the market and interest from private investors,” he continued.
“We are looking forward to recruiting to these two new roles, which will play a crucial part in shaping the future of Bolton and attracting a global market to our town.”
Fantastic
By Anonymous
The best deployment of those extra 20 people would be as police officers and security staff to clamp down on the drug users, drunks, beggers and pickpockets. Bolton will never revive its town centre if people don’t feel safe visiting it.
By Nick
To clarify, it’s only six extra people. The team will be 20 when it is fully assembled, but there are already 14 people working on regeneration.
By Julia Hatmaker
There are people starving on the streets and families that are struggling to feed their children. The roads are needing repair and you cant get to see dr but never mind lets just spend a 100 million on buildings. I know the town needs centre needs sorting but surely this should not be the priority at the moment.
By Mark Wilkes
There will always be people sleeping on the streets and parents who have more kids than they can manage, it’s totally irrelevant
By Anonymous
Further to the comment at 6:21 the only way the fortunes of the people in the town will improve is by improving the town centre. The council are sustained by council tax and business rates. If the take for both of those can increase then that in turn means there is more money available for other obligations the council has. I think this story represents a step in the right direction. The town is, in theory, in a good position to take advantage of the boom going on in Manchester. There is no reason Bolton can’t be as successful as towns in South Manchester, they just need a clear approach and if the town does well there should be funds available to support those who need extra help.
By Anonymous
The commute time on the train from Bolton to Manchester at less than 15 minutes is far less than the commute time from Bury on the tram or even lots of suburbs in Manchester itself.That and significantly lower rents and house prices will attract many people to move to Bolton.Peoole should remember that untill the mid 1990s Bolton was a much more desirable place to live than most of Manchester and it had none of the shooting and violent crime that Manchester had.
By Tracey Shaw
Since when do town councils decide how many police officers there are? I thought Theresa May sacked 30,000 police officers to afford tax cuts for the wealthy. Or was that 20,000? Then you cut central funds to local councils by billions, and wait until local Labour councils are blamed. Osborne’s cunning plan. It still works!
By Anonymous
Good points made by Tracey Shaw. The council need to do what they can to improve the town centre and the imagine of Bolton in general and then market the town in order to attract people. If Levenshulme can be seen as a trendy place to live then Bolton should have no problem.
By Anonymous