Plans to redevelop Kidderminster town centre have been submitted to Wyre Forest District Council by Henderson Global Investors.
The scheme will create a new public square flanked by shops, cafés and restaurants with the River Stour as its centrepiece. It will require the demolition of a number of existing retail outlets and offices including Crown House, an eight storey 1960s block once included on a list of Britain’s most hated buildings.
Henderson’s has promised affected businesses that they will assist in relocating them within the town centre. Despite this pledge, shopkeepers in the Worcestershire town are concerned about the plans to move established businesses and fear that they won’t be able to afford the rents in the redeveloped town centre.
Henderson’s says that it’s important that Kidderminster ‘adapts and moves with the times’ and that the planning application is the key to the transformation of the area. The council says demolishing Crown House and regenerating the town centre has been its priority for some time and represents a commitment to improve the town.
The proposals include a new bridge across the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal linking Weavers Wharf Retail Park, which will gain an additional 20 per cent of floorspace, with Matalan. The plans also feature landscaping, the planting of trees and new street furniture.
If approval is granted, work is expected to begin in mid-2014 with completion scheduled for the summer of 2016.
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