Wharf development starting to take shape

Newbury Canoe Club refurbishment and bus station relocation signals start of wider plan

PLANS to redevelop The Wharf area of Newbury into a ‘leisure and cultural quarter’ are starting to take shape.

In council papers published last year, it was said that the ambitious development would involve removing the existing car park north of the museum and library and building a new café and arts centre.

It would also include an “enhanced water feature” with a barge lay-by and refurbishment of the council-owned Waterside Cen-tre off Northbrook Street – used for leisure activities – to create a new dedicated youth sports and activity centre.

The papers said that Greenham Common Trust (GCT) had already committed to funding The Wharf redevelopment, including the purchase of a replacement town centre building to re-house the Waterside Centre. However, this has been vehemently denied by both the council and the trust this week.

The same papers said that work would start on the site around December 2017 and be completed by June 2019.

However, the council and the trust said that the papers were based on old discussions and have yet to lead to anything.

The first redevelopment steps of the wider area are beginning to take place however, with work under way on replacing the outdated Newbury Canoe Club hut with a modern two-storey building, complete with changing facilities and storage space.

Greenham Common Trust is paying £70,000 towards the project.

This week, West Berkshire Council chief executive Nick Carter said that discussions were taking place between the council and the trust regarding the future of the Waterside Centre, but that he could not confirm any details at this stage.

Also this week, a formal planning application was submitted to relocate Newbury Bus Station from its current home in Market Street to The Wharf. It is being moved to let the Market Street regeneration, which is expected to start in early 2017, take place.

The relocation of the bus station and the wider Wharf regeneration is likely to lead to a substantial reduction in car- parking spaces.

Mr Carter told the Newbury Weekly News that, with regard to the wider redevelopment of The Wharf, he wanted to see it turned into a cultural and leisure quarter, but insisted that nothing was happening yet, and that no funding was in place.

He said: “The council is not putting any of its own money into the redevelopment of The Wharf so we are entirely reliant on getting funding from elsewhere. Given that this is not a commercial redevelopment, that restricts our options somewhat, so that may be tricky.

“We have not got funding in place and it would be misleading to say we have. [The Wharf] is something we want to do, but with Market Street and London Road, there is already enough going on in Newbury at the moment.”

Mr Carter added that he would not be drawn into making a comment when asked whether the council wanted to see a scheme similar to The Riverside in Reading.

Greenham Common Trust spokesman Julian May said: “Greenham Common Trust is in discussion with West Berkshire Council regarding the future of the Waterside Centre. Any proposals which come out of these discussions will be subject to board approval. The trust is not funding The Wharf redevelopment.”