Newport Regeneration Partnership

NRP is a Company Limited by Guarantee with a board, normally of five directors; currently there are four.

Chair: Nadine Evans (HAUC)

Vice Chair: David Adams (S&NCT)

Secretary: David Rees (Rotary)

Treasurer: Glyn Gratton (Town Council)

Registered Office: The Guildhall High Street Newport Shropshire TF10 7TX

Telephone: 07531280612

GOOD NEWS!

Following a lengthy process involving public consultation and awareness sessions which culminated a bid being made to Advantage West Midlands for £25000 to support a worthy project towards enhancing the town, the Partnership has been informed of their success. Draft plans are being drawn and will be made available in August to allow members of the public to have their say on the final shape of, 'canal corner' - the area of paved land in the corner of Chetwynd End and Water Lane. The idea is to make this an attractive and useable space, encouraging people to sit and spend time in this potentially attractive area.

Borough Towns Initiative

In progress from Telford and Wrekin Council is a funding package dedicated to Newport and the six District Centres of Telford, now referred to as ‘Borough Towns'. The five-year development scheme includes £20,000 per year capital funding for each centre and the opportunity to bid from an annual ‘community chest’ fund of £110,000 (all to be match-funded by partnerships). Community Chest bids are to be made via the recently established Regeneration Forum which comprises representatives from Newport and each district centre as well as Richard Bifield and Paul Sherry from T&W. The group’s aims are to coordinate efforts, rather than compete with each other; to try and establish individual identities for the centres and to find and fund joint projects. T&W has also set up a separate development task force for the area.

Newport has made its first bid for this money. This is to support a design guide for Newport. The intention of the guide is to set standards for different types of area, including types of street furniture and shop fronts. The guide will then inform Telford and Wrekin planning department with regard to their decisions when processing applications within the area.

MARKET TOWNS INITIATIVE

In 2004, following extensive public consultation, the Partnership produced a very comprehensive Newport Area Strategic Action Plan. Work was funded by Advantage West Midlands, the regional government funding body, under their Market Towns Initiative and was carried out with the help of consultants West Midlands Enterprise.

The plan has four key strategic objectives:

Economy – to ensure that the economic base of Newport is preserved and expanded in the longer term by strengthening the town as a retail centre, ensuring the long-term viability of local businesses, creating new employment opportunities to reduce levels of out-commuting, developing the town as a possible visitor destination and by capitalising on the opportunities presented by the area’s high quality educational establishments
Environment – to improve the quality of the built and natural environments in the Newport area, by enhancing the local townscape, reducing the impacts of town-centre traffic, reducing the impacts of litter/vandalism and increasing levels of recycling.
Social & Community Issues – to improve the attractiveness of Newport as a place to live by providing additional affordable housing, providing improved community venues and by improving open space provision in the town.
Transport & Accessibility – to improve access to public transport in the town and surrounding villages and to improve and expand the local cycle network.

A range of projects has been identified to meet these objectives and NRP members are currently working on a number of these. As draft plans become available -starting with that for the Canal Corner mentioned above - they will be offered for public consultation. This is expected to start in August 2008.