I campaigned for Crewe to get a Town Deal because I knew it would be a huge opportunity. I walked the Minister in charge around Crewe in 2019 and got him speaking to residents so he could hear about the challenges straight from the horse’s mouth. It's been a long journey since then! But we have got there and the projects we are funding are going to help transform our town and deliver on building back better.
Find out about the projects here:
https://weareallcrewe.co.uk/our-vision/proposed-projects/
The Flag Lane Baths and Mirion Street Youth Club are both huge assets for the town that have been fighting for funding for a long time. Bringing them back into use is finally going to happen.
I also know we need to have more for young people to do in the town centre, so a new multi-use games area is a quick win on that front. We will also fund a five-year programme of investing in our parks.
Improving the access and upgrading the facilities at Cumberland Arena will help more people exercise and make the most out of the first-class site we have there. There is going to be a new 250-person capacity spectator stand as well.
We also want to make it easier to walk and cycle into town so there will be two new routes in from the train station via Mill Street and along Valley Brook which will help people do that.
These are just some of the projects and with the market hall reopening, the £14 million the government is investing the high street, the plans for Lyceum Square, I think Crewe is going to be totally transformed over the next few years and I can’t wait to see it happen!
Hundreds of residents took part in a survey I sent out to help inform the plan. What is important is that residents got to have a say on these plans, we are delivering things you wanted to see. Thanks for taking part!
UPDATE NOVEMBER 2022: All the Crewe Town Deal projects have now been approved, but the Town Board has decided to take the difficult decision to review funding across the projects. Inflation has pushed up construction costs by as much as 18% since the funding was awarded. As such the current plan is not to move forward with the Lyceum Powerhouse project and to reallocate the funding to support the other projects.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2022: The business case for two major Crewe Town's Fund projects have been approved by Government - part of the £22.9 Million in funding we are getting.
First, we will see eight 'pocket parks' around Crewe get new funding to not just address damaged equipment but make them even better. The parks included are Queen's Street, Derby Docks, McLaren Street, School Crescent, Samuel Street, Lime Street Avenue, Valley Park and Westminster Street. Residents will be asked to share their views for the parks very shortly. On top of this, to respond to people telling me we need more things for young people to do in the town centre itself I supported The Wishing Well Project in a bid for funding for a new outdoor multi use games area in the town centre.
Second, the History Centre Public Realm Project has been approved which will help ensure that, when the History Centre is built in place of the current car park by memorial square the public realm, around it will be of the same standard as Memorial Square.
And as part of celebrating our history, I worked with Cheshire College - South & West and with Whitby Morrison to come up with a plan for the college to have an ice cream van as part of the colleges catering courses which can also help us celebrate this exciting part of our heritage more often and more publicly.
UPDATE JUNE 2022: Both the Flag Street Baths and Crewe Youth Zone projects have had their business cases approved by Government