Prestwich town centre Bury Muse p.Font Comms

Muse Developments and Bury Council entered into a 10-year joint venture to deliver the £100m Prestwich scheme in October. Credit: via Font Comms

Partners provide more detail on £100m Prestwich regen

Muse and Bury Council’s vision for a revamped village centre includes a 37,000 sq ft community centre, 200 homes, and a 350-space mobility hub. 

The joint venture between the developer and the council appointed Jon Matthews Architects and Planit-IE to map out the redevelopment of the Longfield Centre last year. 

Now, the consultants’ vision for six acres at the heart of Prestwich has been outlined in a draft masterplan. 

The £100m project will be split into two main phases. 

Phase one concerns two sites, the Longfield Centre and a surface car park off Fairfax Road. 

It is proposed that a multi-storey mobility hub would be delivered on the existing car park. 

Meanwhile, the Longfield Centre will be demolished to make way for several modern facilities. These include: 

  • A 37,000 sq ft community hub – this would include a library, events space, and health centre 
  • A 25,000 sq ft retail and leisure building – ground floor units from 1,000 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft and space for a gym or offices on the first floor 
  • Market hall – a modern 10,000 sq ft space to house food and goods traders 
  • A village square linking the built elements of phase one. 

Phase two would comprise the residential element of the project and see the delivery of three blocks on land to the rear of the Longfield Centre that is currently used for car parking and by Prestwich Health Centre. 

The homes would be a mixture of apartments and townhouses. 

Design of the scheme is currently at RIBA stage two. Bury Council’s cabinet will meet later this week to approve the draft plan for further work. 

The JV plans to submit a planning application for the project in autumn following another round of public consultation this summer. 

Stuart Rogers, project director at Muse, said: “The engagement, knowledge and passion from the local community to the Your Prestwich conversation so far has been incredible and really helped to shape the regeneration plans.  

“We can’t wait to come back later in the summer with our second conversation and show everyone the full details of what’s proposed. We’ll be announcing all the conversation dates in the next few weeks so watch this space.” 

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Absolutely brilliant,cannot wait

By Anonymous

Isn’t this just the proposals that were published in January?

By Anonymous

Wheres everyone gonna park there cars.

By Annon

There are 700 car park spaces in Prestwich, all of which are used daily by employees and customers of local businesses, services etc. Half of this will be replaced by housing, and the other half by a “mobility hub”, which I suspect will do the exact opposite of what they are calling it. Are you saying the local demos wants this top-down prescribed land grab? Prestwich is a vibrant place at present, despite a shabby centre, but it will become a cesspit like Radcliffe after this.

By Anonymous

Love a good mobility hub !

By Dave

This scheme is a long time coming. We residents of Prestwich are delighted at the progress being made and look forward to what will hopefully transform a sorry looking part of a wonderful village into an amazing multi use project. Bring it on…

By Anonymous

Whats a mobility hub ? So its not a car park 🤔

By Anon born in Prestwich

It seems that following all the conversations with the community their plans are exactly as they were before so either everyone agreed with them or they are just paying lip service.

By Anon

Amazing they can spend this much in Prestwich which is surrounded by shops, cafes and secondary schools but Radcliffe has been waiting years for a secondary school, leisure centre, road repairs.
Subsequently Prestwich property prices go up and in Radcliffe because of lack of funding ours are going down.
Mind you we still have to pay high poll tax. Not one council has been interested in Radcliffe.
As the comment re Radcliffe is a cesspit well that’s because Bury Council don’t care the only time they are interested is if you don’t pay your poll tax.

By Anonymous

Are they going to be no shops

By Nic

Still SO disgusted with Bury Council. Have paid council tax to them for 34 years. All we’ve seenis a decline for us and so many of our friends. We lost Radcliffe Baths, Radcliffe Civic Centre & they couldn’t wait to close The Longfield Centre. Only younger people will benefit from their future plans with schools etc. They’ve taken away the places so many older people used on a very regular basis.

By Anita Wilcox

Prestwich serves as a vital community hub for surrounding districts including Whitefield, but because local links from these areas towards prestwich are so poor, many people choose to drive, using the Longfield surface car park.

Whilst a mobility hub would be a worthwhile investment, and would sit well alongside the Metrolink station, it’s success will be dependent upon further investment in local cycle and walking infrastructure to neighbouring areas, which is currently none existent.

The developer contributions which can be written into this scheme should be used to improve the local transport infrastructure, in particular the provision of pedestrian crossings on feeder routes into the town centre.

By Anonymous

Is there going to be a new bank if so what bank

By A holden painter

So…all the elderly folk now using the car park to access the village will have to cycle there instead : very considerate, not!..!!

By Howard G

As a Prestwich resident, this seems like a great improvement over what currently exists. A mixture of retail and market space is great. We really need a good market in Prestwich and this could be great. A new medical centre can only be positive. The two existing main medical centres in Prestwich are depressing as hell. A new library is great also and the mobility hub, whatever that really means, can only be better than the existing surface car park.

By Jo

A Holden Painter – when the demolition takes place for the Community Hub the Halifax will close the door for banking in Prestwich. Want to pay in actual money then you’ll be going to The Rock.

By John G

The first draft of these plans showed a two story car park on Faifax Road and the Health Centre at the furthest point on the Longfield site. Disabled car parking will be available only, as far as could be seen on the plans, on this car park. No disabled parking seems the be available adjacent to the new Health Centre. Disabled people will be severely disadvantaged if that remains so. If disabled parking becomes available adjacent to the Health Centre it should be a lot more than a token handful of spaces.

By John

Annon at 6.06 July 10th. Making the Fairfax Rd carpark two storey will replace the Longfield Suite carpark. Triple story gives the area an extra 170 places

By John0407

how much to park in the multistorey mobility hub?

By parking cash cow

Is a mobility hub a car park , if not then I can see trouble ahead .

By Graham Wilson

Total over development. Just like the radious that doesnt provide parking for all the apartments How many residents cars will now utilise the new hub . Does every new build accommodation have it’s own parking ? If not all these extra spaces will be taken up by the new residents . As for a market , we need to get real. We have a market up the road that’s only viable 3 days a week
Totally Ill thought through and another white elephant in the making.
Prestwich will grind to a halt with all the extra traffic cutting through all the existing residential roads and thoroughfares.
Please do not over develop Its not needed or necessary.

By Rob G

We need to have good free parking, to be able to support the shops and restaurants in the village,

By x

Consolidating 3 car parks into 1 is a recipe for disaster! I entrance and 1 exit will not be enough for the traffic that uses the 3 existing parks. This is a typical Bury Council – driven by its relentless drive for Council Tax revenue by putting housing first!

By Anonymous

A Mobility Hub is not a consolidation of parking – it is the elimination of parking, in favour of renting a bicycle or car for residents that are permitted to make a journey.

By Anonymous

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