City's plans to bring people and culture together

A cultural centre and around 400 new homes are being planned for a prominent city centre site as part of the next phase of its regeneration.

The first phase of the Northgate development in Chester has included a new market, a car park, cinema and restaurants, and now Cheshire West and Chester Council has started to reveal its plans for the second phase.

The council said Chester "needs people living in the city" but the plans would need to be "really respectful of the historic core" of the area.

The first public consultation events are taking place this week, ahead of the submission of a planning application that is likely to be early next year.

Gemma Davies, director for economy and housing at Cheshire West and Chester Council, said the second phase would build on recent developments such as the Storyhouse theatre which opened in 2017 and the first part of Northgate.

"It needs to talk to Northgate, and it also needs to be really respectful of the historic core of the city," Davies said.

She described Chester as an "amazing unique city", and the scheme needs to be "really special" but also "deliverable".

Davies said the council has been trying to encourage more people to live in the city centre.

"We need people living in the city, and Chester is a fantastic place.

"We think we can play with the best of them in terms of being an attractive city that people will want to live here and bring their children up here as well", she said.

ION Developments will be building the scheme for the council, and development director Rob Mason said it would be a "challenge but a great opportunity".

"What we're looking to do is something that is for Chester and is coming out of what the people of Chester have already told us," he said.

A significant part of that would be the planned cultural building as he said there was a gap in the market.

"Chester needs more of a cultural offer," Mason claimed. "The type of thing we're envisioning at the moment is something that celebrates Chester's history more than Chester does at the moment.

"It's got a great history so some form of facility within the building that enables us to do that would be really important", he said.

Mason added he felt there was a need for a venue smaller than the Storyhouse theatre which could host music and bands, alongside potentially a rooftop bar and commercial gallery to host touring immersive exhibitions.

Gemma Davies added that the city already had some "great cultural assets" and a new cultural centre would "enhance" what is already in the city and link with the museum and the other arts and cultural sites.

Another consultation is being held in Northwich, where the council plans to move the market from its current site at Weaver Square to the Barons Quay development.

The buildings on Weaver Square would then be demolished to make way for the new homes.

There have been issues around occupancy at the £80m Barons Quay development, the first phase of which opened in 2016.

"Northwich is a great market town and Weaver Square is a part of Northwich that needs attention," she said.

"The future of it isn't where it was before and we've taken a really strategic and proactive decision to move the market and put it in Barons Quay, which we think will really support Barons Quay as well".

Cheshire West and Chester Council is running a public engagement drop-in event at Chester Cathedral on 12 May from 2-7pm on the Northgate scheme and a similar event for Northwich at Barons Quay on 15 May from 1-5pm, with a deadline of 19 June for comments on both schemes.

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