Shops seen as way for 'gloomy' estate to buy a brighter future

After decades of waiting residents on a Hull estate could finally get a modern shopping centre.

People on Orchard Park estate – whose hopes of a major regeneration programme were dashed this week – could finally see the new centre built if councillors give planning permission at a meeting next week.

Veteran Labour councillor Terry Geraghty said the centre "would help lift the gloom a bit" after the city council saw its attempt to secure 160m through the private finance initiative (PFI) rejected by the Homes and Communities Agency.

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It meant an end to plans to build 500 new "eco homes" on the estate and refurbish existing properties, despite the council having spent 1m of its own money working with residents to agree a design.

The proposals going to the planning committee next Wednesday will mean the old shop units coming down and 10 retail units built in a single-storey building with enough room for a supermarket.

The "contemporary" brick and timber building with a butterfly roof, will stand in a landscaped area and a total of 175 parking spaces will also be provided.

Planners recommend the proposals for approval and state: "The existing centre is in poor condition and is in need of redevelopment. The open spaces around the shops are of poor quality and offer a poor visual environment. The centre is currently in decline.

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"However it is in a sustainable location and its regeneration is considered to be acceptable and desirable."

Coun Geraghty said: "As far as I'm concerned it's about time. We have been waiting long enough. Since the estate was built in 1964 we have been waiting for a decent shopping centre. All we have now is one or two little shops as the supermarket has closed down and the chemists have moved. "The retailers baffle me – when you go into Willerby or Kingswood you have a glut of shops, but nothing on Orchard Park even though when you look at the catchment of Orchard Park and North Hull there's 20,000 to 30,000 people."

He added: "It will lift the gloom a bit on Orchard Park – we have been waiting that long we have all grown grey beards."

Coun Steve Bayes, who's headed the Orchard Park regeneration committee for the past decade, said a new health centre, including GP practice, pharmacy and customer service centre had already driven up footfall in the area.

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"This is the second phase and hopefully there will be a third phase. For the residents who are there it is a very important development. Survey after survey has said they want improvements in the shopping centre and the range of shops there."

The decision to pull the 160m scheme is the third major funding blow in Hull in recent weeks following the axing of 30m funding for a home improvement scheme in the west of the city and a request to find savings on its 400m Building Schools for the Future programme.

Hull North MP Diana Johnson who represents Orchard Park described the axing of the scheme as " a betrayal of the Orchard Park people by the Liberal Democrat-Tory coalition Government."

She said: This dire news sets the needs and aspirations of Orchard Park residents for better housing back for many years."

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Hull Council has said that the news will not affect the demolition of the seven multi-storey flats and are sending letters out to residents telling them it won't affect the plans.

The decision to cut the funding was revealed in a letter to council chiefs from the HCA and the Department of Communities and Local Government.

It stated that they did "not wish to raise expectation of alternative funding at this time given DCLG's tight capital and resource funding settlement."

COUNCIL EXPLORES FUNDING OPTIONS

The scrapping of the PFI scheme means 500 new council houses won't be built on the estate, nor will up to 168 private homes. However the council hasn't given up on the project entirely.

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A briefing note to councillors says there may be potential to develop a private sector funded solution. It adds: "We are working with the HCA and other partners to explore this option and investigate its feasibility."

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