Public opinion divided on the plans to regenerate Walkden Town Centre

The public consultation for plans to regenerate Walkden Town Centre opened yesterday and local people are divided.

Shop owners have been left with split opinions over whether the regeneration will help Walkden Town Centre or make it worse.

The owner of Blades in the Town Centre thinks the regeneration will be good for Walkden: “Look at the place why would someone want to remain on this side of the centre.”

However, other shop owners think the change is a waste of money: “Instead of spending money to fix the problem of the roof leaking they’ve decided to spend a stupid amount of money on creating a piece of artwork as they say to stop the water coming through.”

Members of the public can share their views at Link Mall next to Specscart in sessions running 10am-1pm and 3pm-6pm.

📣 PUBLIC CONSULTATION OPENS TODAY!
👀 Get a first look at the future of #WalkdenTownCentre.
🗓️ Oct 2 & Oct 6: 10am-1pm, 3pm-6pm
📍 Location: Link Mall, next to Specscart.
🗨️ Share your thoughts, your feedback matters!#PublicConsultation #Regeneration #CommunityVoice pic.twitter.com/5OVUgk3fPG

— Walkden Town Centre (@WalkdenTownCent) October 2, 2023

The regeneration will total over £15 million, with the focus being on demolishing Egerton Walk/Victoria Square to build a new façade with retail units along the front.

Planning is about to start with Salford Council and work is hopefully set to start in February.

Once the tenants are relocated, rebuilding of the front of the centre can begin with green spaces.

A member of staff at Walkden Town Centre wants the regeneration to bring more shoppers into the centre: “What we want is to give our existing tenants and new tenants the room to have a really good time and increase the shopping experience and give back to the local people and give them a reason to want to shop here and stay local.”

The plans hope to rehome the businesses in the old side of the centre to the new half whilst the work takes place.

A shopper thinks the plans are good: “to get people in because obviously a lot of the shops are closed so it makes it difficult for the few shops that are open because no ones really coming in.

So their business must be going down, so I think it’s good to get Walkden back on the map a bit more because I’m sure it used to be busy but now there’s no one around.”

The full regeneration is scheduled to be done by November 2025.