Ideas for Dewsbury town centre revamp revealed

These were just some of the ideas put forward for transforming the town cetre’s Northgate area during a design review.

Dewsbury Town Team is due to publish the full findings on its website soon, but it gave the Reporter a sneak preview this week.

In January, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and social enterprise Integreat Plus hosted the design review session.

They asked local councillors, Kirklees officers, town team members and others to share ideas for how potential Heritage Lottery funding could be used to breathe new life into Pioneer House, the Kingsway and Queensway Arcades, and nearby streets.

They ranged from radical ideas, like demolishing the block of buildings between Halifax Road and Bradford Road to make a public space and performance area, to smaller steps involving improved pedestrian links and cycle links.

Suggestions from a group looking at how people move around the town included:

• directing traffic down Foundry Street instead of Northgate;

• diverting the free bus to out of centre car parks;

• improving pedestrian links to car parks and shops in Bradford Street.

Ideas from a group talking about how to use outside spaces included:

• making a landscaped public space in front of Pioneer House;

• extra parking behind Pioneer House for the mosque in Halifax Road;

• community space in Queensway Arcade.

Meanwhile, ideas put forward by the group discussing buildings included:

• glazing over the market to allow use in all weathers;

• creating a link through Piooneer House to connect the train station with the arcades;

• opening up the upper floors of buildings for new uses like markets.

A review panel, made up of members of CABE and Integreat, said that the ideas could lead to the creation of a ‘Pioneer quarter’.

They said demolition had the potential to remove unsightly buildings but too much could damage the character of the town.

It suggested hosting one-off events to test potential public spaces and how they could be used long-term.

It added that the glazed canopy over the market was a sensible proposal, but there were more pressing priorities for funding.

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