Plans for £100m Prestwich transformation lodged

Plans for a £100m regeneration of the centre of Prestwich Village have been submitted.Prestwich Regeneration LLP, the joint venture between nationwide placemaker Muse and Bury Council, has lodged a planning application for the regeneration of the Longfield Centre site.The plans include a community hub featuring a library and flexible community space that can be used for events, clubs and art and culture. The building will also offer an opportunity for a new Prestwich Health Centre, with discussions ongoing with the NHS and local GP practices.Also included is a new village square, market hall, flexible retail and leisure spaces and landscaped outdoor and green spaces.About 200 new homes are proposed as part of the outline application.The design has been shaped significantly by input from locals following two stages of consultation.Stuart Rogers, director of project management at Muse, said: “This is a major moment for the future of Prestwich and the culmination of many months of in-depth community consultation. We’ve been blown away by the response from the local community and their passion. They had some really useful ideas and feedback, much of which we’ve been able to incorporate into the plans.”One of the things people love about Prestwich is the many independent businesses already here and this really came through during the consultation. So, we decided to increase the amount of retail space by removing one of the residential buildings and added a larger market hall to provide smaller spaces for local retailers to thrive and grow.”We’re also looking at how we can provide temporary space during construction for businesses so that the village can continue to be a bustling place for food, drink and shopping. The idea of the village square was also really popular so we’ve increased that in size and also included more green spaces and planting throughout the site.”