Radcliffe unveils £40m civic hub plans
Bury Council is expecting a 2024 completion date for a three-storey leisure centre off Blackburn Street, a key part of the authority’s regeneration programme for the town.
Pozzoni Architecture has drawn up the plans for the project, which would provide swimming pools, fitness suites and studios, and an indoor climbing facility. The town’s existing Spring Lane leisure centre will be replaced by a new school.
Approval would also see both the Market Chambers and the Market Hall chambers refurbished and brought back into use. Proposals for the buildings include commercial spaces, shops, and a multi-use events space across four floors. A link would be provided between the adjoining buildings.
The Market Chambers and Market Hall chamber would also be refurbished and brought back into use. Credit: via planning documents
The estimated cost of the project is £40m, half of which would be funded by Bury Council’s capital programme commitment. The remaining £20m comes from the government’s Levelling Up Fund.
The civic hub’s ground floor would feature a pool hall with 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.
Travelling up to the civic hub’s first floor, visitors would find 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.
Visitors could carry on to the second floor, where 3,500 sq ft of open office space would take up the majority of the space. There would also be 400 sq ft of secure office space and meeting rooms ranging from 300 sq ft to 600 sq ft in size provided.
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.
Planit IE is the landscape architect for the scheme, and Vinci Construction is transport consultant.
Plans for the hub have been in the works for a while, with the first proposals submitted in August 2020 following a six-week public consultation.
To find out more about the updated project, search for application number 69388 on Bury Council’s planning portal.
All very well for the younger ones, but what’s happened to the shops that are being demolished and then the only shops are Lidl and Asda … what shall people do, get a bus to Bolton or Bury …. To get other shopping done ! What’s happening to our town, we had every thing and a pool and a civic hall and 2 secondary schools… oh yes BURY COUNCIL TOOK OVER !!
By Jojo
Still looks like the self storage warehouse in manchester
By David arnfield
Gold blob
By Levelling Up Manager
Pretty sure that Coney Green was built several years after Bury Council Jojo, but never mind small details like that.
What concerns me is Radcliffe’s almost complete absence of active travel routes. And even those that exist are in poor condition. The Outwood Trail is overgrown and ignored. It has barriers at the Asda entrance that illegally block disabled users. The town centre is a motor-centric polluted hellhole. There are no active travel routes from the Metrolink station to the bus station. Church Lane is terrifying to cycle along. So is Stand Lane. And Radcliffe New Road (where a girl was run over and killed a few years back).
If Bury really want to improve lives in Radcliffe, they need to prioritise walking and cycling, the two cheapest and healthiest ways of getting about.
By Radcliffe born
This is exactly what Radcliffe needs. It will improve the centre which has been stagnant for decades with one of the lowest footfall for a market town, in the country. The first phase has already started with the infrastructure in place for the the new ‘Freak Dance’ studio over to the car-park adjacent. If the same planning, meticulous care and high level of quality that has gone into this temporary structure, is transferred to the main scheme, then the residents of Radcliffe are in for a treat.
By Eye4Detail