On levelling up economy’
Castleford had a major regeneration in 2008 and is now set for another £23.9m economic boost. Paul Jeeves reports.
STANDING ON the banks of the River Aire, the towering red-brick facade of Queen’s Mill has dominated the skyline of Castleford since the late 19th century.
The building is a testament to the West Yorkshire town’s proud industrial heritage, laying claim to being the world’s largest stone-grinding flour mill.
But it is also a landmark of what the town has achieved in the past few years, a legacy of a regeneration project that caught the national headlines in 2008.
The Castleford Project, the urban renaissance scheme that was featured on a Channel 4 series, Kevin McCloud and the Big Town Plan, was heralded as a defining moment for the former mining town.
However, 13 years on, Castleford finds itself at the forefront of the Government’s bid to bring widespread regeneration across the country under its Town Deals programme.
The town was namechecked by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his Budget speech earlier this month, when he laid out details for the 45 locations which will benefit from a total of £1.02bn in funding.
The fact that Castleford has found itself in the first tranche of locations to be awarded funding under the programme – a total of £23.9m for the town – has raised the question over just how effective the regeneration project of the early 2000s was at bringing about lasting change.
Lorna Malkin, the chief executive of Castleford Heritage Trust, admitted the town was once again in need of major investment to attract new business and enterprise.
She said: “The Castleford Project was a long time ago and, like any town, Castleford still needs money to be spent in it. But that is not to say that it didn’t bring benefits to the town, as it did instil a civic pride in Castleford for the residents here.
“People were brought on board for big community meetings and that galvanised a spirit which is so important to make sure that what we set out had a chance of succeeding.
“The benefits are longer term than the Castleford Project envisaged and I do believe that the effects are still being felt.”
One of the most visible features which remains from the regeneration project that featured on the Channel 4 series fronted by Grand Designs host McCloud, inset, is the footbridge that runs across the Aire next to Queen’s Mill.
The £4.8m crossing, designed by Canadian-born architect Renato Benedetti, was the final and most ambitious of 11 schemes that formed The Castleford Project.
The bridge has become a landmark for the town, although many of the other elements of the regeneration scheme proved not to be so successful. For instance, a playground that was transformed under the project was repeatedly vandalised.
However, the Castleford Project is also seen as a trigger for other developments, including the transformation of Queen’s Mill itself.
The redundant building was bought by Castleford Heritage Trust in 2013 and it has now been transformed with a £500,000 investment into a facility at the heart of the community.
Start-up businesses have been given space to operate,
and tearooms, a craft beer shop, a coffee trader and a music school are all now housed in the former mill.
For Mrs Malkin’s husband, Harry, a former miner who is now a nationally renowned artist after using his redundancy payout to embark on his new career in 1987, a question mark does, however, remain over how successful the Castleford Project actually was.
Castleford-born Mr Malkin, 70, who lives in nearby Ackworth with his wife and their 12-year-old son, Jack, said: “I do feel that the Castleford Project had limited success. It did promise a lot but unfortunately didn’t deliver everything that people were hoping for.
“Castleford is like many towns across the North of England, it is a traditional mining town ultimately, and a lot of people’s attitudes are mirrored in that. We do need to attract new investment, but also a younger generation, who will have the ideas to hopefully drive the town forward.
“But there have been benefits. The Queen’s Mill development would not have got off the ground if it hadn’t been for the work of the community who came together all those years ago.
“It is now a part of my wife’s life and I am very much involved there myself. Hopefully the success of the Queen’s Mill can be seen as a template for helping the rest of the town.”
The former mill has also been at the epicentre of Castleford’s response to coronavirus during the past year.
It has acted as a community hub, sending out food parcels to hard-pressed families and individuals and distributing 10,000 activity packs to children in the first six months of the crisis.
But for all the goodwill among communities in Castleford, there can be no replacement for sustained and co-ordinated investment.
The Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, Yvette Cooper, told The Yorkshire Post that the global recession triggered by the credit crunch of 2008 followed by a decade of austerity under successive Conservative governments have had a profound impact.
Ms Cooper, who has represented Castleford in Parliament since 1997, said: “There needs to be a recognition that there has to be a long-term plan and sustained investment. We cannot simply have one-off initiatives as the benefits of these quickly fade away.
“For those 10 years of austerity, towns fared particularly badly. Public services badly affected by cutbacks have contracted into cities, meaning the outlying towns have been left behind even more. All of our towns, but especially in the North, need a long-term vision of how they can attract investment and build the economy.”
Detailed plans for exactly where the £23.9m under the Government’s Towns Fund will be spent in Castleford are still to be finalised.
However, initial proposals are looking at revitalising the riverside, building on the regeneration of the Queen’s Mill and creating a similar centre for small businesses in Sagar Street. A new skills centre could also be created in partnership with the Castleford Tigers Foundation, the charitable arm of the town’s rugby league club.
Efforts are also being made to highlight the heritage and culture of Castleford, the birthplace of the seminal 20th century sculptor Henry Moore whose name adorns a sculpture gallery in Leeds.
Castleford has a rich Roman past, as well as a proud industrial history, including pottery, glassmaking, milling, tailoring and mining.
Ms Cooper said: “We are grateful to have been given the money under the Towns Fund but there is a need for a far wider vision. This should not be about short-term headlines. This is about the long-term future of the North and the country as a whole.”
■ In Monday’s The Yorkshire Post: How the levelling-up agenda must be fulfilled for the future of the country.
‘Is levelling up meant to benefit disadvantaged communities – or spruce up electoral seats targeted by the Tories?’