On the TOWN - Agora Goes Forward

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The long-awaited redevelopment of the failed Agora Centre in Wolverton will start before the end of 2021 after Milton Keynes Council’s planning committee resolved to grant permission for TOWN’s pioneering regeneration plans.

The Love Wolverton project will deliver 115 low-carbon homes, 86 for market and affordable rent which will be owned by the council and a 29-home over-50s cohousing community for Still Green Cohousing. There will also be new independent shops, extensive public realm and green infrastructure and a renewable energy microgrid in the heart of Milton Keynes’s original railway town.

Planning approval comes shortly after the Council’s decision in July to invest over £36 million to acquire the vacant Agora Centre and fund delivery of the project. It means that work to demolish the unloved 1970s shopping centre can finally begin before the end of 2021.

TOWN

The council will now work with developer TOWN to implement the scheme, with the latter also facilitating almost £6 million in private investment to deliver homes for Still Green Cohousing in parallel. Coming after the Council in June also committed a further £3.7 million to supporting works to deliver complementary public realm and parking, this means over £45 million will be invested in the heart of this historic railway town over the next three years.

 “Council backing for these ambitious plans is a mark of Milton Keynes Council’s commitment to delivering a fairer and greener recovery from the pandemic and shows what our goal of being a world-leading sustainable city means in practice.”

– Rob Middleton 

Cabinet Member for Budget and Resources, Milton Keynes Council

Regeneration

"The lessons from across Europe are clear that successful regeneration and development needs a strong civic hand," continued Middleton. "So it’s right that we throw the council’s weight behind a project that will deliver new, low-carbon, council-owned homes for local people and should be an example of how to breathe new life into established town centres.”

The funding means that the plans, which were developed in close consultation with the Wolverton community during 2019-20, will be delivered in full along with a policy-compliant level of affordable housing and additional funding for local schools, health and play facilities.

The project, which was submitted for planning at the end of 2020 by TOWN working with architects Mikhail Riches and Mole and landscape architects URBED.

Neil Murphy, director of TOWN, said: “Planning permission is a vital milestone in any project. Here, it’s the culmination of years of co-operative work between council officers and elected members, our team and above all the Wolverton community who have campaigned tirelessly to have the Agora replaced by a development worthy of the town.”

Picture: An artist's impression of the Love Wolverton project.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
18th August 2021

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