Future High Street Fund refresh

 Why am I writing this?

Simple because people forget where we have come from and where we are going so we get stuck in a loop of the same arguments and same idle "councils are crap" rhetoric. 

Assuming we all know the government provided a future high street fund pot of funding, we applied and failed, tweaked our plans and then were awarded a big chunk of cash. if it had been a crap plan it wouldn't have got the funding (cue allegations of other influences 🙄). The successful bid contained a program of projects which were to be funded by the government, the council and other stakeholder which in Tamworth's case is South Staffordshire College. Before I give an update I'll list the projects and add their justifications, which I'm sure the experts on social media or sitting with friends chatting will disagree with. 

Staffordshire College and the Co-op building. 

South Staffordshire college have operated the Tamworth campus for many years now along with Cannock, Lichfield and Robaston. I am aware some won't have realised this or the fact that a large amount of the current college building is empty, unused and mothballed. It has long been an aspiration for the college to move to the town centre and discussions have failed with land owners for a number of year. South Staffordshire College want to move to the town centre. 

Why is Tamworth Borough Council supporting the college's desire to move ? Simple, a thriving town centre is a busy one which houses reasons for people to be in the town centre offices, businesses, colleges and universities provide reasons to be in the town centre which brings disposable income to support the hospitality and retail of a town centre. I am very aware that a lot of people don't like the generations that follow theirs and label them as a problem, all generations have a small number who make the same mistakes as the previous ones did and maintain the narrative but these are limited and the rest of that generation suffers. A college brings day time students, night school students and then a group of staff from admin to teachers etc, a whole load of people operate within a college campus. So thats in a nutshell why Tamworth Borough Council supported the project. 

Progress - 

Middle Entry

Whilst at the time middle entry met the then vision for the town centre and retail offer times have changed and so have opinions. Middle entry and its architecture detract massively from the historic elements of Tamworth, almost creating a barrier between the castle, town hall, market street and the magnificent St Editha's church.

The project here originally was to change the whole design of middle entry with 2 sweeping buildings  creating a flow and visual lines connecting the above heritage assets. 

Clear line of sight and pedestrian flow along with improvements to the facade of the buildings was the ultimate aim. 

Progress - 

The Flex

This is the name of the shop fronts from middle entry to market street. 

Castle Entrance

Nationwide

Market Street.