Planit-IE to draw up Whitefield vision
The design practice has been selected to prepare a plan that helps identify investment opportunities in the Bury town.
The council wants to draw up a town centre strategy for Whitefield, aimed at addressing issues around transport and exploring development opportunities, looking at the former library, police station, fire station, and town hall.
Bury Council has a low level of land ownership in Whitefield compared to other parts of the borough, “so medium to large-scale opportunities may be limited”, according to a cabinet report.
The Whitefield Town Centre Plan will be primarily focussed on Bury New Road, from south of the junction between Bury New Road, Bury Old Road, and Higher Lane and its junction with Radcliffe New Road.
Whitefield was identified as a priority intervention area by the High Streets Task Force. However, HSTF does not contribute funding towards its projects. At present, funding available to support the regeneration of Whitefield totals £51,000: sourced £49,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and £2,000 from the council.
Whitefield is the latest Bury town to come under the council’s regeneration microscope. In Bury town centre, several schemes are well advanced, including the delivery of housing on brownfield sites, a revamped market, and the transformation of the Millgate Centre in partnership with Bruntwood.
In Radcliffe, Bury won £20m in October 2021 for the creation of a civic hub in the town centre, while in Prestwich, the council has joined forces with Muse to overhaul Longfield Shopping Centre.
Bury need to transform the A56 so that people can cycle along its length without fearing for their lives. It’s a gigantic road, around the police station the carriageway is 11 metres along – for a bus lane and two traffic lanes. There is plenty of space for protected cycleways. Same on Ringley Road – a 9 metre carriageway, more than enough space for 2 x protected cycleways and 2 general traffic lanes. Transforming this enormous roads so people feel safe cycling along them would remove a lot of unnecessary car journeys from the roads, leaving them clear for people who need to drive.
By Radcliffe born
Bury council wiped Whitefield Town centre off the map to drive people to shop in Bury town centre. What Bury will do is turn Bury New Road through Whitefield into another major traffic jam designed around Prestwich and Crumpsall Town centres, and when we have more traffic jams blame it on traffic and not the road design to enforce the congestion charge ( which was rejected in the 2008 referendum but now rebranded under ‘Clean air zone’)
By Stephen Morris
We need a plan that stops Nipper Lane from being used as a rat tun. The speeds of cars go along it are ridiculous. The useless bus lane needs to go before we start talking about cycle lanes. The traffic needs to flow, not be held up producing noxious fumes for us residents.
By Paul Rohan
A good start would be to significantly reduce the car-dominance along the corridor.
By Active Travel Trev
The alley ways between Wilton, Egerton and Sefton Street are not council owned – they are in a bad way because they are used as school and nursery traffic cut throughs. There is also a problem with waste being dumped. The residents would like to see these adoped by the council and maintained to a standard where they are safe and clean. We’d like to add community gardens, pots, benches and make these communal outside space, as seen in some south manchester suburbs. Without help, it seems like quite an impossible task…
By Mrs Moz