‘URBAN greening’ could become key to Warrington town centre as development progresses over the coming years.

Referrals from the supporting the local economy policy committee – on tenure and urban greening – came before the cabinet during its virtual meeting on Monday.

Earlier this year, the committee discussed plans which could see the town follow London’s lead by prioritising the ‘greening’ of streets in the heart of the borough as development takes shape over the next two decades.

Cllr Tom Jennings, cabinet member for economic development and innovation, said: “First and foremost I want to thank the members of the supporting the local economy committee for bringing these forward and certainly want to stress the importance of these two pieces, particularly in the world that we live in now with Covid and the fact that we need and have utilised green space more than ever throughout restrictions and throughout lockdown.

“And, so, really want to ensure that we do have that impetus for where we see town centre regeneration we’re finding the right balance and I think certainly that the end result of the paper would be that that’s noted within planning and certainly within our engagement with developers and with our own entities that we wish to bring forward.”

Cllr Judith Guthrie, cabinet member for environment and public protection, said the greening of the town centre, in terms of climate change, is really welcome.

She added: “But one of the things we do need to focus on is not just whether or not we green the town centre, but looking at the management costs of such areas going forward.”

The cabinet agreed that tenure research should be commissioned for the town centre and noted that the council is currently in conversations with partners on regeneration across the town centre.

Meanwhile, it agreed that urban greening should be considered with future town centre developments and noted that the council is currently in conversations with partners on regeneration across the town centre.