Ben Houchen reveals new plan to transform centre of Hartlepool
The Tees Valley Mayor is to establish a Mayoral Development Corporation
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and Hartlepool Borough Council Leader Shane Moore have today (28th April) announced new plans to transform Hartlepool town centre.
Hartlepool has already seen nearly £90m invested in key projects over the past five years but to help the town reach its full potential, Mayor Houchen is set establish a Mayoral Development Corporation at its heart.
This will reshape the town to make it a more attractive place to live and visit, support small businesses and deliver a master plan to maximise future funding.
This Hartlepool Mayoral Development Corporation will be the second of its kind to be set up in the region, following the success of the South Tees Development Corporation, now known as Teesworks.
It was established in 2017 to prepare the former Redcar steelworks site for massive investment, bringing the area back to life and creating thousands of jobs. These new plans will make the region the only area outside of London with two such bodies.
The plans will build on previous investment in Hartlepool, including £20m for the redevelopment of the Hartlepool waterfront to create a landmark visitor destination, funded a multi-million-pound boost to revitalise Church Street, providing £8.3m for a new Northern School of Art building on Church Street along with a £3.8m investment in a new state-of-the-art film and TV studios – the only large-scale film and TV studios in the North East.
"If we get this right the long-term future is extremely positive."
Most recently, the redevelopment of Hartlepool Railway Station has reached a major milestone after Mayor Houchen secured £12m from government to transform the much-used hub.
The new funding will be used to bring the station’s redundant second platform back into use with new lifts and a footbridge installed to improve access. Work on the redevelopment of the station will get under way in September and be ready in time for the Tall Ships regatta in 2023.
Mayor Houchen and Cllr Shane Moore will now work together to finalise which areas of the town centre will be included in the development zone before submitting the plans to Michael Gove at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The Hartlepool Mayoral Development Corporation will formally be created later this year once the parliamentary process to establish it is complete.
Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, said:
“We have big plans to transform Hartlepool’s town centre. We’ve seen the same transformation at Teesworks in Redcar bringing international investors and creating thousands of jobs for local people – we want the same transformation for Hartlepool so that Poolsworks!
“Over the past few years, I’ve been working closely with Cllr Shane Moore on the regeneration of Hartlepool town centre and I’m excited to be taking these plans to the next level by setting up a Mayoral Development Corporation for Hartlepool.
“Transforming Hartlepool town centre won’t happen overnight, like in Redcar it will take several years to deliver the full redevelopment, but if we get this right the long-term future for Hartlepool is extremely positive and one local people should be excited for.
“Councils are not set up to deliver this and working closely with strong leaders like Cllr Shane Moore we will rip up the red tape and bureaucracy so we can speed up these plans, to create a town centre everyone who lives in Hartlepool can be proud of and which they want to spend time in.”
Hartlepool Borough Council Leader, Cllr Shane Moore, said:
“I am delighted to be working alongside Mayor Houchen to turbocharge the redevelopment of our town centre. We’re already investing huge amounts of cash in transforming the town centre and we have some amazing plans for its future, but with a new Mayoral Development Corporation we can deliver a town centre fit for the 21st century so much faster.
“With the breath-taking speed of development on the Teesworks site in Redcar over the last 12-months we’ve seen the power a Mayoral Development Corporation can unleash when it is coupled with a forward-looking innovative plan for the future.
“Our town centre is home to so many amazing local businesses that the council have supported through an unbelievably difficult two years and I am determined to make sure it thrives long into the future, which is exactly what this will deliver.”
Hartlepool MP, Jill Mortimer, said:
“Hartlepool town centre is filled with so much potential, and I’m thrilled that Mayor Houchen is taking the bold step to create a second Mayoral Development Corporation, this time in Hartlepool.
"This coupled with the councils investments and the £25m secured from the government’s Towns Fund will mean the full potential of our town centre can be realised, meaning more people shopping locally and supporting our brilliant small businesses.”
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