Town Centre "Regeneration" Costs £4.9 million

12.36.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 3rd Jul 2007

In response to a written question from Liberal Democrat Councillor, Philip Nathan, it was revealed at last week's district council meeting that the cost of the town centre regeneration projects has been over £4.9 million pounds.

According to Labour portfolio holder Councillor Chris Jukes, £2.2 million pounds of this was contributed by Chester-le-Street District Council with more than £2.7 million provided by the development organisation One North East.

In contrast to the belief held by many in Chester-le-Street that the arch had been paid for by the Arts Council and that other external organisations had contributed funding, no other organisation had contributed funding, although in response to further questioning from Philip Nathan, Linda Ebbatson, the Labour Leader of the Council, stated that the Arts Council had contributed £20,000 to commission the arch.

Russell Haswell, Chair of Chester-le-Street Liberal Democrats, commented that the development of the Town Centre had been a missed opportunity. The millions of pounds spent on the town centre regeneration should have been spent more effectively and would not lead to any notable improvement in the business environment in Chester-le-Street. The funds would have been better spent on more effective and attractive development in the Town centre or on the many other projects in the district where the money was so badly needed.