New Morpeth scheme

Community to shape Morpeth shopping centre plans

18 October 2005

Local traders and residents will have a leading role in shaping the future of the Back Riggs Shopping Centre in Morpeth, following the appointment of urban regeneration specialists to develop the centre.

Dransfield Properties Ltd has entered into a joint venture partnership with centre owners Ethel Austin Properties, and has already held a series of meetings with Back Riggs and Sandersons Arcade traders to keep them up to date with developments and find out their views.  Further meetings with community groups, trade bodies and other stakeholders will follow shortly. 

Ambitious plans to redevelop the centre were unveiled earlier this year, but public consultation found that the proposals were not acceptable to the local community.  Now that Dransfield Properties is leading the project, a completely new scheme will be prepared which will take on board the views of the town’s stakeholders.

Dransfield Properties already has a joint venture partnership with Ethel Austin Properties in Selby, a market town in North Yorkshire.  Since their involvement in the Market Cross shopping centre, tenants have been secured for vacant units, the centre is fully let for the first time in many years and improvements to the centre are ongoing with a major refurbishment programme.

Dransfield Properties is also leading a market town development in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.  This £37 million scheme will transform a former engineering works into a thriving mixed-use development with retail, leisure, commercial and residential space.

Mark Dransfield, Managing Director of Dransfield Properties Ltd, said: “We have a long history of working with communities in market towns. We will be listening carefully to people’s comments and doing all we can to incorporate their views and allay any concerns.”

The naming of the centre will also be put in the hands of the community, with a competition amongst local Morpeth schools. Pupils will be asked to make suggestions and a panel of local business and community representatives will judge the best ideas.

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk