Re-inventing Radcliffe FINAL REPORT A report for Bury Metropolitan Borough Council by URBED... with King Sturge and TPP January 00 -0- Re-Inventing Radcliffe - Final report December 2003 -0- A report for Bury Metropolitan Borough Council - Final Report - Contents by URBED with King Sturge and TPP Part 1 January 2004 1. Introduction 1 2. The renaissance of industrial towns 3 3. The Renaissance of Radcliffe 7 Part 2 - Analysis 4. Urban Design Assessment 21 5. Commercial Audit 35 6. Town centre health check 47 URBED - Manchester 7. Access to the town centre 53 10 Little Lever Street 8. SWOT Analysis 67 Manchester M1 1HR Part 3 - Towards a Vision t. 0161 200 5500 9. Reinventing Radcliffe 79 f. 0161 237 3994 Part 4 - The Masterplan URBED - London 10. Area Proposals 87 19 Store Street London WC1E 7DH t.0207 436 8050 f. 0207 436 8053 e. [email protected] w. www.urbed.com -09- Re-Inventing Radcliffe - Final report December 2003 -08- 1. Introduction In which we summarise the main themes to emerge from our work and describe the structure and content of the report. Radcliffe is a town with a long and others have moved away. As a Manchester with relative ease while and proud history. One of a result neighbourhoods, particularly going to a supermarket for their constellation of industrial towns to the east of the town centre have weekly shop. In this situation what is in North Manchester, it once also declined. This in turn has the role of Radcliffe town centre? employed thousands of people impacted on the town centre that in mining and the paper industry. grew up to serve a bustling local It is for these reasons that today, These people lived locally in community but is no longer able to while Radcliffe as a whole is not strong neighbourhoods and used rely on a loyal and local customer doing too badly, the town centre the bustling town centre with base with money to spend. is really struggling. Because the its thriving market to do their world has changed, this decline may shopping and socialising. The town centre has also been not be as easily reversed as it has faced with other challenges. Many been in larger centres like Bury. If This has all changed, not through types of shopping have moved Radcliffe town centre is to have a any fault of Radcliffe or its people. out of traditional town centres to future it must rethink its role. In The industrial revolution that supermarkets, retail parks and out- short it must ‘reinvent’ itself. created the North Manchester of-town shopping centres. The larger towns has long gone and most of town centres have responded to the manufacturing that it left in this by improving their offer. This its wake has also closed or been is particularly true of Manchester rationalised so that it is no longer City Centre but also of Bolton a major employer. Radcliffe lost and increasingly Bury. These are its mine many years ago but the places that Radcliffe people would wounds left by the closure of the have once visited only on special Radcliffe and East Lancashire Paper occasions. However, with the Mills and Allen’s Green Works are mobility afforded by the car as well much more recent. Local people as the Metrolink and buses they have had to find work elsewhere can now shop in Bury, Bolton or -- Re-Inventing Radcliffe - Final report December 2003 This is the main conclusion of We then undertake a renaissance tunities, threats) analysis of the this report. It has been produced audit that compares Radcliffe centre along with the results of by URBED, King Sturge and TPP to a range of similar towns to the very successful workshops following a study commissioned assess how it is really doing. This with stakeholders held as part of by Bury Metropolitan Borough in fact tells a more positive story the study Council. The study follows on from than many people in Radcliffe the report on Bury Town Centre expected. While Radcliffe has This is developed in Chapter produced by the same team and many problems these are the 10 into a vision for Radcliffe, like that report will feed into the same as those suffered by towns not as an independent market review of the Unitary Development with similar history and Rad- town but as a sustainable urban Plan (UDP). However, the issues cliffe is not doing as badly as neighbourhood integrated with in Radcliffe go deeper than some places. the wider city region. This is de- planning policy and involve much veloped into a series of themes more fundamental regeneration An urban design assessment that including the promotion of issues. Yet because of the overall examines the built form of Rad- new housing, the development prosperity of Bury Borough, cliffe, the way it has grown over of the town centre as a service, Radcliffe - unlike many similar time and its currents strengths leisure and cultural hub for local towns in North Manchester - is and weaknesses. people and the development of not a Neighbourhood Renewal a unique identity of Radcliffe Area and has very limited access A commercial assessment of based on the visual arts - St Ives to regeneration funds. It is Radcliffe by King Sturge. They without the sea (or sunshine!). therefore unrealistic to make look at the market for different recommendations requiring large types of development in the area Chapter 11 develops this vision amounts of public funding. The before concentrating in more into a set of practical proposals report therefore sets out a new detail on the health of the town for the town. This area sets out vision for Radcliffe and suggests a centre. as a flexible masterplan for the route for realising this vision based town, which creates a frame- on evolution rather than revolution A transport assessment by TPP. work for a series of proposals using the tools available to us to do This looks at access to Radcliffe concerning new housing, the this report. by road, public transport, foot schools, the market, the mu- and cycle as well as looking at seum and new employment uses. The report is structured issues like parking and the bus These are then prioritised and into 11 sections. station. phased to create both a planning We start by setting the renais- framework and a deliverable sance of Radcliffe into the Chapter 9 draws these strands masterplan. national context of the urban together into a SWOT renaissance in the UK. (strengths, weaknesses, oppor- -- 2.The renaissance of industrial towns In which we describe progress towards the renaissance of urban the Urban Summit these conclu- areas in the UK. We suggest that while real progress is being sions have led to the Sustainable made in many places, especially the provincial cities, there are Communities Strategy and the still major questions about the future role of industrial towns that Housing Market Renewal Path- have lost their industrial base. We suggest that this is starting to finder Areas. be addressed in the larger towns but that quite different issues exist in smaller towns like Radcliffe. The lack of demand in the North has largely been mani- The regeneration of Radcliffe needs to reinvent themselves based fest in private rather than social to take place in the national context upon the repopulation of the housing areas. This is a major of the renaissance of urban areas. city centres and the growth of change from the situation five This was explored by the Urban knowledge, creative and service years ago when most housing Task Force, set out in the Urban economies. These cities (particu- problems were concentrated White Paper and most recently in larly Manchester and Liverpool) on council estates. While some the Communities Plan. URBED still have huge problems and the problems remain, many social undertook a major research project signs of recovery are confined housing providers have put their for the Urban Summit in 2002 look- to relatively small parts of the house(s) in order. This has, how- ing at the progress towards urban urban area. There is, however, ever, pushed problems into the renaissance in 24 towns and cities the sense that a corner has been private rented sector where they across England. The conclusions turned and it is possible to imag- have proved more difficult to from this work are a good starting ine the improvement in the city control. This has been an impor- point for this work in Radcliffe: centres spreading to (the inner tant contributor to housing mar- cities) as the urban renaissance ket collapse and abandonment London is booming and grow- of these cities takes hold. in some terraced housing areas, ing rapidly so that its population will soon pass 8 million for the There are increasing imbalances first time since the 1930s. This between the North and the population growth is driving South. The South is overheat- economic growth and London’s ing and suffering severe housing place as one of the three great shortages leading to price infla- world cities - with New York tion. The North is patchier with and Tokyo - is secure. areas of high demand, but also significant areas where the hous- The story in the provincial cities ing market has collapsed. This is not quite so dramatic. How- is not so much due to popula- ever, their renaissance is well tion drift from the North to the underway. Cities like Manchester South but rather from inner ur- and even Liverpool are starting ban areas to the periphery. Since -- Re-Inventing Radcliffe - Final report December 2003 Huddersfield Aspley basin the same way as people have been attracted to villages in rural or semi-rural settings.