A Government minister says £18 million of investment in Worksop will give businesses there a "fighting chance" as 20 units in its shopping centre stand empty. Ten-pin bowling, an indoor soft play area and a trampoline park are among the features of a new leisure facility which will be built at The Priory Centre on Bridge Place.
The Priory Centre is still home to several national companies including Costa Coffee and Sports Direct, but 20 of the units there are currently vacant. Businesses to have left the area in recent years include Pandora, Peacocks and WHSmith.
But on a tour of the centre on Thursday (June 8), a Government minister says a recently announced package of investment for Worksop could "breathe new life" into The Priory. Dehenna Davison was appointed levelling up minister in September 2022 and oversaw the most recent round of the Government's Levelling Up Fund.
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The fund sees areas across the UK bidding for Government investment in local projects, with Worksop receiving £16 million last time, coupled with £2 million provided by the local council. The fund has proved controversial in several areas, not least in Nottingham, where the Broad Marsh redevelopment has now been rejected for funding twice.
A committee of MPs, including Nottingham's Nadia Whittome, also published a report last month saying that towns and cities should not have to compete for "scraps" of money.
But during her visit to Worksop, Ms Davison said: "I love the Levelling Up Fund because it does what it says on the tin and right here in Worksop, it's about helping to redevelop the town centre, bring in more footfall, breathe new life into the Priory Centre and make the town centre a place that local people are proud to come and visit.
"Having signed it off on pen and paper, I'm happy to come and see it in person and see the vision for what it's going to look like... We wouldn't have given taxpayers' money to this if we didn't think it was going to work."
Other projects being funded by the £18 million investment in Worksop include a new footbridge and towpath for the Chesterfield Canal. But in terms of her optimism for rejuvenating The Priory Centre, Ms Davison did acknowledge that shopping habits had changed, but said that providing leisure facilities such as a trampoline park will have "spill-over" benefits to the shops that do remain.
The minister said: "There are many theories world-over on what we need to do to tackle some of the challenges facing high streets these days, but I do think that mixed-use approach is absolutely the right one. I shop online, it's very convenient sometimes to get your bits and bobs off Amazon, but we need to bring people to high streets in other ways.
"These things always take far more time than we'd like them to, if I could click my fingers, wave a magic wand and make it happen overnight - I absolutely would. But of course, we need to make sure the proper processes are followed in terms of land acquisition and making sure there's proper consultation with people here in the town."
Accompanying Ms Davison on the Worksop visit was Bassetlaw's Conservative MP, Brendan Clarke-Smith, and David Armiger, the Chief Executive of Bassetlaw District Council. When Mr Clarke-Smith was elected in 2019, he said that reviving the high streets in Worksop and Retford would be one of his top priorities.
On whether people in Worksop would see any changes to the town centre in time for the next general election, Mr Clarke-Smith said: "The work is already going on now so I think by the time you get there in a year and a half, I think you'll see quite a lot of difference across Bassetlaw from a number of the projects. Some of those may come along quicker than others but physically, you'll actually start seeing the benefits very soon."
Thursday's visit saw Ms Davison taken around the Priory Centre and to the banks of the Chesterfield Canal, before the visit progressed to The Bridge Skills Hub building nearby. The building was officially opened in March after an investment of £3.5 million, with 80 students having enrolled on higher education courses there during its first year.
Ms Davison also used the visit to explain how a recently announced 'Levelling Up Partnership' for Bassetlaw, worth £400 million over two years, will work in practice. The partnership recently caused a row after Mr Clarke-Smith accused Bassetlaw District Council of playing Worksop and Retford "off against each other."
That was because there was uncertainty over whether Retford would get any of the money from this latest fund, given Government criteria which says it would ordinarily go to a district's largest urban area - which in Bassetlaw's case is Worksop. But Ms Davison said the Government was trying not to be "prescriptive" about these particular pots of money and that she would be "all ears" in terms of bids specific to Retford.
Reacting to this commitment, Mr Clarke-Smith said: "Retford has got some very different needs to those of Worksop, but there's still needs there and we want to see the whole area benefitting. I'm quite reassured by what I've heard today that there's no reason why that can't happen and that they're trying to be less prescriptive about where money can be spent."
Explaining the purpose of Levelling Up Partnerships in general, with Bassetlaw having been one of only 20 areas selected to host one, Ms Davison said they are about "delving really deep to find out what some of the challenges really are and then doing what we can to try and put in place the bespoke package of local interventions that can drive up living standards."
The partnerships are separate to the Levelling Up Fund itself, with a third round of that expected before the next election. Michael Gove recently said Nottingham would "absolutely not" be wasting its time in bidding for the Broad Marsh again. In terms of when the next round will happen, Ms Davison was unable to provide detail, though the minister said an announcement on that would come "very soon."
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