The Arcade Group Dewsbury had its first meeting with the public yesterday as it looks to turn the Grade-II listed building into a community-run shopping centre.

The building will be leased to the community benefit society by Kirklees Council for ten years.

Chris Hill, development director at the Arcade Group Dewsbury, told The Yorkshire Post: “People just buying household goods are increasingly doing it online or at retail parks.

“We’ve got to put on things that they want to do with friends and family. Even the shops we have in will put on things that people can participate in.”

A potential tenant produces bath bombs and has the idea of allowing children to come in and make their own bath bombs in the shop.

“We’ll have lots of events as well,” Mr Hill added. “It’s going to be things that people can do and socialise with.”

The Arcade was built in 1899 but had fallen into disrepair in recent years, eventually closing in 2016. The building was purchased by Kirklees Council and is now one of nine projects which make up the Dewsbury Blueprint regeneration scheme.

“It’s not just The Arcade, we want to revive the whole town centre and use unused shops and perhaps even buy a couple of shops ourselves as a group,” Mr Hill said.

He describes the Victorian shopping arcade as a “twin jewel” alongside the market in Dewsbury’s crown.

While a new lease of life is on the horizon for The Arcade, then much more needs to be done across the town centre to “give people a reason to visit again”.

Mr Hill said: “If we’re going to revive the town centre, it has to be done as a whole - not just The Arcade.

“The Arcade is the lever that can make that happen. We can get enough interesting shops into The Arcade, along with reviving the Market, to begin to turn the town centre around.”

The shopping mall, with its glazed roof and ornate ironwork, is set to undergo a £7m restoration.

Recently, Kirklees Council secured £106,657 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for initial development work, as the first stage of a £3.7m application towards the overall £7m restoration costs. The Arcade Group Dewsbury found getting the funding in place to be “a bit of a struggle” and that alongside the pandemic was the reason why it had taken such a long time to have its first face-to-face meeting with the public.

Mr Hill added: “The lottery approval in June has really taken us over that bridge now. We’re 90 per cent certain that come next March we’ll have the £7m to do the construction work.

“Unless the construction world goes even madder than it already is, that will give us enough money to do a good job on The Arcade.”

He said that “it was lovely” meeting members of the public on Tuesday evening with around 35 people turning up to the launch event.

Ideas including a “recycling festival” were shared at the meeting, which took place at Dewsbury Town Hall.

Mr Hill said: “We’ve got quite a lot of support. We want to make sure we keep in touch with them and try and get them more involved building up to the community share issue next April.”

The Arcade Group Dewsbury is encouraging people to stay up to date with developments and to get involved by signing up to its newsletter at https://www.arcade-dewsbury.org

Build it and they will come

Construction work could start in summer 2023 with a completion date in 2024.

Mr Hill believes that Dewsbury could still draw people back to the ailing town centre.

He said: “It’s not a quick fix but Dewsbury is one of the most beautiful Northern towns. There’s two million people within ten miles of the town centre. If we put on things that are worth visiting, they’ll come.It’s working through together what those things will be. It will take three or four years. To make an impact, it’s got to be both the market and The Arcade together and other businesses. We have to turn it around and I think we can.”

How the group behind The Arcade in Dewsbury is looking to bring people back into the town centre