Plans to push ahead with Wellingborough town centre masterplan approved by North Northamptonshire Council
A long-term vision to regenerate Wellingborough and help nurture a thriving town centre will be produced by the council after it was deemed the ‘most in need’ in a strategic review.
North Northamptonshire Council’s (NNC) executive has greenlit plans to push ahead with a Wellingborough Town Centre Masterplan, which will lead to a detailed action plan to deliver growth and regeneration within the heart of the community.
A review was commissioned at the end of last year to look at four major towns in North Northants, including Corby, Kettering and Rushden, and determine which locations presented the best opportunities for new projects to breathe life back into the towns.
It concluded that Wellingborough offered the biggest scale and opportunity for developing a long-term masterplan, placing Kettering as the next in line to look in depth into its regeneration opportunities.
Cllr Ken Harrington (Reform UK, Hatton Park) praised the plans to move forward with a dedicated masterplan for the area at the council meeting and the opportunity to ‘turn Wellingborough into a place that the people of Wellingborough will once again want to invite people in to visit’.
Fellow ward councillor Paul Brooke (Reform UK) also reflected on the decline in the town centre over the two decades he has lived there and the need for support to reinvigorate the area.
He told the executive panel: “We need to make it a place where people can work, rest and play.
“All towns get their nicknames, but Wellingborough is indeed going to be called the ‘closed-down town’ if we carry on the way we’re going.
“It’s got to change – all of our town centres have got to change.”
‘Leaving this more difficult work at the back of the queue’
Further development of masterplans for other towns such as Rushden and Corby will be considered later this year, however they will be subject to the council budgets.
Concerns were raised by Cllr David Brackenbury (Conservatives, Thrapston) over Rushden being put at the lowest priority for a regeneration vision.
Analysis in the report found fewer strategic or large-scale opportunities to pursue and a lower deliverability score when compared with the other towns, despite Rushden having the second-highest need.
Cllr Brackenbury said: “I believe it is precisely the difficulties identified in the report that makes concentration on providing focus on this rather neglected growth town imperative.
“To my mind, this positioning indicates a need for more attention, not leaving this more difficult work at the back of the queue.”
Executive member for planning and economic growth, Cllr Jan O’Hara (Barton Seagrave and Burton Latimer), explained that the council doesn’t have enough money to pursue projects across all towns at once, which is why it is being tackled in a phased approach.
The cost of undertaking the town centre review and developing a masterplan for Wellingborough is currently budgeted at £65,000.
Council leader Martin Griffiths (Croyland and Swanspool) added: “We have to start somewhere. The learning that we get from Wellingborough can be rolled out not only across Rushden, Kettering and Corby, but let’s take it further afield – be brave, be ambitious.
“Our corporate plan is all about families, communities and prosperity. This is what inspires me, this is the vision that we need to have moving forward.”
Engagement with the local community will take place before the Wellingborough masterplan is brought back to the executive this Spring for approval. Next steps, including an action plan, will then be considered.