Bury gives go-ahead to £40m Radcliffe civic hub
Designed by Pozzoni Architecture, the multi-use town centre complex would feature a host of sports facilities, offices, and a library.
The £40m Radcliffe civic hub is the centrepiece of the town’s regeneration.
Half of the cost of the scheme would be funded through Bury Council’s capital programme. The remaining £20m comes from the government’s Levelling Up Fund.
“We are investing unprecedented amounts of money into regenerating Radcliffe, and the hub will play a crucial part in that, transforming the town centre for generations to come,” said Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, Leader of Bury Council. “It’s great news for Radcliffe that our plans for the new Civic Hub have been given the green light.”
He added: “Local residents and businesses have been keenly awaiting this – now, working together, we can all get on with making it happen.”
The civic hub’s ground floor would feature a 3,500 sq ft swimming pool alongside a 1,600 sq ft learner pool.
There would be 150 spectator seats provided, as well as a 2,500 sq ft changing village.
Clip ‘n Climb would also take up 1,700 sq ft to provide climbing walls adjacent to a 400 sq ft party room.
The global rock-climbing company is expanding its UK reach, with four existing centres and its services also proposed to be incorporated into Ribby Hall Village’s entertainment centre.
The civic hub’s first floor features a 5,000 sq ft fitness suite in addition to two multipurpose studios measuring 1,500 sq ft and 2,000 sq ft.
There would also be a 5,000 sq ft library provided.
The second floor is given over to 3,500 sq ft of open office space. There would also be 400 sq ft of secure office space and meeting rooms ranging from 300 sq ft to 600 sq ft.
There is currently a TSB building on the site. The bank closed in February 2021 and would be demolished to make way for the civic hub. Market Chambers and the Market Hall chambers are to be refurbished and brought back into use as part of the scheme.
Planit IE is the landscape architect for the scheme, and DPP is advising on planning.
The first proposals for the £40m civic hub were submitted by Bury Council in 2020. Credit: via planning documents
Glad to see it developed but this design is shockingly bad.
By Heritage Action
Is it as shown below or an all brick or metal wall
By Anonymous
Looks similar to a container! Especially the colour. It,s frontage would look better if it was similar to the shops already there and the library building.
By Harold Dickinson
Bury have made a dog’s dinner of the town, demolishing the secondary school with no thought to increasing need they create with housebuilding, now a swimming pool as many councils can’t afford theirs and are closing them – this council is hardly a beacon of good husbandry and is a poor steward of public assets. They’ve unpicked a town of optimum design and made a hash of it.
By Anonymous
And plans for the new secondary school for Radcliffe?
By Anonymous
Shops? Are there going to be any?
By C Prentice
So no shops .. no retail outlets … nothing for small business owners .. no high school ..absolute waste of tax payers money ..
By Anonymous
Time to get out of the area. Regeneration means they are going to continue to overbuild and overpopulate an area. Destroying once strong British communities along the way. They will only learn once its too late. More traffic, less space, less gp, school, hospital bed availability, overloaded sewer systems and waterways etc etc etc… the end of once a good place to live.
By Anonymous
I don’t know anyone in Radcliffe who agrees with us losing most of the shops in exchange for a 2 floor library, gym and clip and climb that is expensive, most people in such a deprived town can barely afford to live let alone have money for what are now luxuries! We need support for all the ABEN (honeless) residents, asylum seekers, addicts and alcoholics and people living off food banks. Where do they fit in to this hub? My seld and other people have been to consultations emailed the council but they just aren’t interested. Mark my words this will be a huge costly fail!
By Juliet Eastham
More money wasted, that’s bury council for you!
By Anonymous
Why don’t they spend some of this money on the castle armoury?
By Mick
Hope they do a better job of what they built opposite town hall Bury 😕
By Margaret
Haha, more money down the toilet. Everyone I know is absolutely against it. What will happen to shops? Where is the parking going to be?, What will happen with the old library which is a listed building and just recently been refurbed ?, You know you have clowns in charge when they spend £500,000 on benches and plant pots.
By Anonymous
Such unsympathetic design – totally unimaginative given Radcliffe’s enviable riverside location and wealth of traditional low-rise architecture. King Charles would rightly describe this monstrosity as a ‘carbuncle’ on the face of a potentially attractive and desirable town. Just awful!
By Anonymous
Poverty is the reason why Radcliffe is in decline. it is an old Lancashire industrial town, with no decent jobs now, poor housing stock and doesn’t even have a secondary school. Compared to Prestwich and Whitefield it is grim.
By Elephant