Agenda item

To receive a report and presentation on the regeneration plans for Crewe including the Crewe Hub Station and Town Centre regeneration.

Frank Jordan, the Executive Director of Place introduced this item to the Committee. 

The Committee heard that this paper outlined both the importance of Crewe at a national level, and what could be done to tackle longstanding issues related to health and economic outcomes for local population.   The key measure of success for residents was to get the benefit of that.

Whilst the focus was on Crewe, there was emphasis on supporting the regeneration of the town centre to provide a package of intervention, ensuring strategic links, and support of other towns both for now and for the next 4-5 years.

Peter Skates, Director of Growth and Enterprise gave a presentation to the Committee.

Since the last update to this committee in February, a full business case had been submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) an announcement was expected in November and if successful, a paper would be submitted to Cabinet to recommend accepting the grant.

The aspiration was to bring back in town living, to use car park sites for potential developments for living.

£75k accelerated funding was available provided it is invested by March 2021.  That had been taken forward at Lyceum Square with the Ly2 Development and included physical enhancements to the square.

Peter explained the purpose of the report to this Committee was to note the Council was the accountable body to the Crewe Town Board and had delegated authority to the Portfolio Holder.  Crewe Town Board was not a legal entity but informally constituted.  The Portfolio Holder, in consultation with the Executive Director of Place and approval of the Board would submit a Town Investment Plan to Government and submit a bid to the Towns Fund to Government.

Andrew Ross, Director of Infrastructure & Highways brought a presentation to update the Committee on connectivity into Crewe via HS2 and station regeneration.

The Committee was advised that Network Rail led a project to make Crewe station sufficient capacity to serve seven high speed trains per hour, increasing both size and scale of the station.

Government have commenced design refinement consultation. 

In order to accommodate the size of the high speed trains coming to Crewe, there would need to be expanded platforms and a new access point on Weston Road.  The Council had worked closely with Government and Network Rail on this aspect of the project.

There were plans to make enhancements to Nantwich Road that would provide a stronger link to Crewe Town Centre and access for all modes of transport- bus, taxi, pick up and drop off.

The Committee was advised of three imminent road junction improvements:

1)    To the west of station (mill street, Gresty road area) to improve area for pedestrians and cyclist;

2)    The Weston road roundabout, to upgrade and make improvements to widen Weston road to 4 lanes; and

3)    The Station access, Crewe arms roundabout and station access.  A new road bridge link to south of station, would improve links for all modes.

A business case was submitted to Government at the end of February and the Council received correspondence from Government in May in favour of the project but the global pandemic had caused the need to reflect and review the basis of the business case.

The plan covered Local Plan strategic employment sites and extended into Cheshire West and Warrington.  Further meetings had been arranged to review the revised proposition with indictive approval by November 2020.

The Committee was invited to ask any questions.  There was some discussion on:

·         The expectation of patronage on trains post-pandemic and how the business case is being driven on the delivery of the Local Plan;

·         The acknowledgement of risk management and the expectation of 5-7 high speed trains an hour to serve Crewe, but until contracts had been signed, nothing was certain;

·         The infrastructure Northern Rail were upgrading would facilitate 2 trains an hour to London in 55 mins.  20 mins to Manchester and less than 30 mins to centre of Birmingham;

·         Acknowledgment that the Council would not want to miss an opportunity to support local growth;

·         The recognition that the Bus Station in Crewe is deteriorating rapidly,   and that there were conversations between the Bus Station and Arriva about the terms of their lease and looking at improvements.  The  new development included a Bus Station.

·         A planning application would be submitted in spring for a multi storey and bus station as part of the leisure led retail scheme.  The market at the moment is for leisure, with the vision for Crewe to become a desirable place in which to visit, thereby unlocking the visitor economy to the town;

·         The paper did not commit to the Council to making significant investment or resources if Government don’t approve business rate retention then the Council can adjust the scheme commensurate with the response given by Government;

·         In terms of wider connectivity to the west of the County, Crewe North connection would enable the Liverpool services to come via Crewe.  West Coast services, the 2 London fast services are to Liverpool, Transport for the North were working on the East-West Link from West Leg of Manchester to take a spur to Liverpool.  There would be a h igh speed to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.  In terms of Chester- there was some discussion about electrification from Crewe to Chester.  The benefit of the longer platforms at Crewe station was the ability to split them and serve more destinations;

·         There was some work ongoing with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to potentially reopen the Middlewich train line for local services.  Working sub-regionally and locally on revised bus strategy for the borough to improve bus connectivity.

RESOLVED- That:

a)    Frank, Peter and Andrew be thanked for their attendance and presentations to the Committee;

b)    The recommendations within the report be noted and endorsed to Cabinet by this Committee.