09/08/2021
TC provides cost advice to boost £20 million strategic regeneration of the City of Newport
We have just finished working with design, planning and landscape architecture experts, The Urbanists, to support Newport City Council’s bid for £20 million investment from central government’s Levelling Up Fund (LUF).
If successful, the funds will be used to develop the ‘Northern Gateway’ of the City around the railway station, including extensive urban greening, sustainable drainage and a transformation to active travel – getting people and goods around the city using non-motorised means.
A Masterplan for a revitalised city
According to Newport City Council, the scrapping of the Severn bridge tolls in 2018 and developments in the pipeline (including the South Wales Metro) put the city “at the crest of a wave”. So it’s important that opportunities to capitalise aren’t missed.
Newport has a Masterplan that splits the city centre into three main areas and sets out developments and improvements which will be carried out over the next three to eight years. Northern Gateway is the first of these, encompassing Queensway, Cambrian Road, Bridge Street and Upper Dock Street including the Indoor Market, Market Arcade, the former sorting office in Mill Street and the Cambrian Centre.
The Levelling Up Fund has a total of £4.8bn available for UK councils to spend on “infrastructure that improves everyday life”. If the Newport bid is successful it will help to deliver “a revitalised and vibrant heart for the city with a strong and independent identity that is rooted in Newport’s history and is forward-looking, continuing the impetus set by recent successes.”
We’re backing a city that’s on the up
Newport has much to offer, including excellent connectivity just off the M4. Now electrification of the London to South Wales mainline will make train journeys to and from Newport and the capital and other parts of the UK even quicker. Businesses, investors and developers are taking an increasing interest in the city and the council is working with them, the Welsh Government and other strategically important bodies to ensure the city achieves its full potential.
Newport City Council has already worked with partners like TC in the public, private and third sector to bring about significant and positive changes to benefit businesses, residents and the local economy. Over the last 15 years, Newport has been transformed by regeneration projects including the creation of new homes on former derelict and brownfield sites; a landmark university campus in the city centre; breathing new life into vacant historic and key buildings and the opening of a new retail and leisure scheme.
Projects are already lined up that promise to further boost economic, employment and educational opportunities for the city and the Council is committed to maintaining a leading role in ensuring the growth and development of Newport continues long into the future.
We are proud to play a part in this intensive and dedicated work and wish the City luck with their bid. We hope we can continue to work with the Council to realise its short, medium and long-term strategies and priorities to establish Newport as a great place to live, work and do business.
“Much has already been achieved in the heart of Newport but much remains to be done. We need positive and constructive contributions. Confidence is growing in our city and we need to do everything we can to capitalise on that. We have a rich history, but we have an exciting future.”
Cllr Debbie Wilcox, Leader, Newport City Council
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