Question
What are your plans for regenerating Wokingham Town Centre after the Coronavirus?
Minutes:
What are your plans for regenerating Wokingham Town Centre after the Coronavirus?
Answer
Making sure our town centres can continue to thrive in a post-Covid world is incredibly important to this Council. This work will be supported by the Business and Economic Recovery Group.
Pre-Covid, Wokingham town centre was already seeing a real increase in popularity and footfall as the regeneration was nearing completion. Residents and visitors were attracted by the great new businesses and facilities such as the Everyman Cinema, the new square at Peach Place and the lovely new park and destination play area at Elms Field.
As with all town centres, the initial lockdown effectively closed all but essential businesses. However, in recent weeks, we have already seen signs of some recovery in Wokingham. People are returning to the town centres as the lockdown relaxes and more businesses open. Whilst it is early days, we know local people want to support their local town.
Strategically, we have been offering support to retailers throughout the restrictions with over £35m of support given out to local businesses since March. This includes business rates relief, the original small business and hospitality and retail sector grants, and the latest discretionary grant, which was focussed on supporting some of the hardest hit small businesses such as market traders who are so important to our town centres. We have also continued to work closely with other important groups such as the Thames Valley LEP, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Chamber of Commerce to look at what wider resources are available to support businesses and make sure they can access them easily.
Focusing on Wokingham town centre, the Council is working very closely with the Town Council and Love Wokingham to identify some of the local businesses main concerns, ideas and thoughts. We feel strongly that if recovery is to be a success, plans need to be developed in partnership with the businesses who also have their part to play in making sure the town is a safe place to shop over the coming months.
A range of actions have been put in place to help our centres recover, including targeted marketing and awareness campaigns to keep people updated about what is on offer in the town centre and how it is being safely managed.
Whilst we know there is still a lot of work to be done, and there are likely to be many changes over the coming months, we believe that the regeneration of Wokingham has created the ideal conditions for the town to continue to be resilient and become the success we know it can be.
Supplementary Question
The Wokingham regeneration is also delivering new homes. Can you confirm the status of these new homes?
Supplementary Answer
We are delivering in excess of 200 new homes as part of the regeneration project. 22 apartments in Peach Place have already been let to key workers, providing much needed accommodation and adding vibrancy to the town centre.
Now that estate agents have reopened, I am happy to report a really positive level of interest in our houses and apartments above the retail areas in Elms Field, via our estate agent David Cliff. Viewings are under way in line with social distancing protocols and we are starting to receive offers as well.
Across the park, David Wilson Homes have reopened their site following the lockdown and are continuing to build out. They have continued to market the scheme and have also had a good level of interest which is continuing to pick up since the restrictions have been eased. We are also planning to build a further 55 apartments in the town, as part of Carnival Pool Phase 2. The planning consent has been agreed and construction will start soon. The contract will be tendered later this year.