Warrington Town Deal. all you need to know

The Warrington Town Deal will see £22.1million of Government cash come to the town.

But what is the deal and what is planned?

Here's what we know

What is the town deal?

The deal is a £22million programme of works. Warrington successfully made a bid for the funding from Government last year.

Since then a town deal board, a group of business, political, leisure, cultural, community and education leaders, have been working on the schemes for Warrington.

So where are we up to?

The business case for three schemes have already been submitted and last week for more have been approved by the council's cabinet to send on to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), which in turn will unlock funding for the schemes.

What are the seven schemes?

• In May, an agreement was made for a Health and Social Care Academy at Warrington & Vale Royal College on Winwick Road, which was identified as a £1m fast-track project. The academy will train the next generation of health and social care professionals to meet the needs of Warrington residents and beyond.
•  In October, a sustainable travel package and new bus fleet depot also received cabinet approval, which combined will provide greater access to public and active transport across the borough. The bus depot will run the electric bus fleet in the town, Zebra funding which was approved in the budget earlier this month.
• Agreed this week, is a digital enterprise hub, which will support digital innovation across all disciplines – including artificial intelligence, big data, virtual reality, ecommerce, gaming and automation. It will be based in St James' Business Centre off the Causeway
• An advanced construction & civil engineering (ACCE) centre, based at Warrington and Vale Royal college, which will support the engineering, construction, nuclear and allied industries with a £3.66m Town Deal funding allocation

• A £3.12m health and wellbeing hub, based in the vacant Contact Warrington centre in the town centre, where people will be able to access a range of services under one roof
• A refurbished cultural hub at the Pyramid, using £4.99m Town Deal funding to improve the arts centre to become a place that will nurture the arts professionals of the future, providing a modern and flexible creative space to collaborate, produce, present and perform

What have they said:

Chair of the Warrington Town Deal Board and MD of Muse Developments, Matt Crompton, said: “It is exciting to see proposals for our Town Deal moving another important step closer to reality.

“It’s been a momentous month for the Town Deal and it’s clear that we are making good progress. The final four projects have been approved locally and we can now move forward with unlocking the funding for these schemes. Partnership working across the Town Deal board to find solutions and shape these ambitious projects is paying off and I’m looking forward to continuing to witness our pioneering Town Deal’s progression.”

Leader of the Council, Cllr Russ Bowden, said: “The hard work of all partners on Warrington’s Town Deal Board means that we now have seven ambitious, transformative projects that are fit for development. I am pleased that we previously managed to approve plans for the health and social care academy, new bus depot and sustainable travel package. It’s great news that we have now also approved plans for the remastered cultural hub at Pyramid, a town-centre health and wellbeing hub, a digital enterprise hub and the ACCE centre.

“Local approval of the remaining four Town Deal projects also aligns with our recent ZEBRA funding bid outcome. It means that our shared vision for a ‘future Warrington’ is closer than we might think. The beauty of the Town Deal is that it has the potential to reach and positively impact all of our residents in different ways and I am looking forward to seeing our plans move forward to development.”