Updated programme outlines future town centre improvements

Bridgend County Borough Council Cabinet members have heard how an influential fund delivered to secure a range of improvements in town centres has been updated.

The Targeted Regeneration Investment programme ran from 2018-2021 and its successor programme Transforming Towns is currently running until March 2022.

To date, funding has enabled the local authority’s regeneration team to commit to around £2.7m for projects across the county borough, including the recent funding award of £910,000 for acquisition and demolition of the police station site at Cheapside.

Completed projects funded by the programme included:

• Funding support for 17 properties in Bridgend, Maesteg and Porthcawl under the Covid Outdoor Improvements Grant
• The construction of a ground floor on Nolton Street, Bridgend as part of the Coastal Housing Group development
• Development funding for the Bridgend Town Centre Masterplan
• Revenue funding for a range of town centre management projects
• Funding for several Thematic Urban Centre Property Enhancement/Living Grants projects including Adventure Rooms, Racoon Hair, La Cocina, and Rye and Cane in Bridgend.

Ongoing and future projects will be funded by the Transforming Towns programme until March 2022 and will look to invest in projects which can deliver realistic economic and community outcomes.

The Transforming Towns programme will also see more places in Bridgend and Maesteg benefitting from the Thematic Urban Centre Property Enhancement and Living Grants such as the former Family Value building and former Natwest building in Maesteg and the Coity Castle pub in Bridgend.

Meanwhile, via the Green Infrastructure funding, Commercial Street in Maesteg town centre and Linc Cymru’s re-development of Sunnyside, Bridgend, will both be among those to benefit.

The Transforming Towns programme will allow Bridgend County Borough Council to maximise support for revitalising town centres by addressing shared issues.

These include dealing with vacant premises, a need to increase footfall, supporting tourism as well as providing green infrastructure and biodiversity in town centres and supporting active travel routes.

I think there’s a tremendous variety under the general heading of this initiative. The real game changer is going to be where education and regeneration mix in the project arising out of our Bridgend Masterplan for a brand new Bridgend College campus on the site of the old police station at Cheapside. This will help us move forward in a truly transformational way.

Councillor Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration