Regeneration of Dudley town centre gets multi-million-pound triple boost

The regeneration of Dudley town centre was given a triple boost with work starting on the street-running section of the Metro tram line and the announcement of multi-million-pound investment deals for the Portersfield development and a new Institute of Technology.Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and Cllr Ian Kettle, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, were on hand to get the Metro works underway and revealed a £6.3m West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) investment package to pay for essential highway infrastructure to serve the Portersfield scheme.A £2.1m WMCA investment was also announced to support the construction of Dudley College’s Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology.Both WMCA investments are the latest funding deals under a massive, region-wide urban renewal programme using hundreds of millions of pounds secured over recent years from Government to help unlock stalled sites for new homes and jobs and drive a green economic recovery from Covid-19. With construction of the street-running section of the Metro line now underway, the £449m WMCA funded extension remains on course to open to passengers in 2024. It will link Dudley to the regional tram and rail network and be served by a new £18m tram and bus interchange station for the town which is also being funded by the WMCA, through Transport for West Midlands (TfWM). The Metro extension, which will run from the existing line at Wednesbury through Dudley to Brierley Hill, as well as the Portersfield, Interchange and Institute of Technology are all part of a wider £1bn regeneration of Dudley town centre that will help put in place the building blocks needed to help the town and wider region secure a successful economic recovery from the pandemic. Other regeneration projects for the town include: A new £18m Dudley Leisure CentreA £28m Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre, supported by the WMCAImprovements to both Dudley Zoo and the Black Country Living Museum The Portersfield and Institute of Technology investment deals are the latest examples of the WMCA’s brownfield first policy in action. The policy is focussed on regenerating derelict industrial land (brownfield) to provide new homes and jobs for local people, helping to protect the Green Belt. It also includes transformational schemes that can help reverse the decline of struggling town centres and high streets. The road infrastructure provided by the Portersfield investment will open up land for the £82m scheme which will feature around of 400 new homes, many of them classed affordable, leisure uses and retail. More than 500 jobs are expected to be created. The £26m Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology will have a strong focus on high-tech programmes in transport technologies, complementing the research and distribution activity at the VLR National Innovation Centre. Work is underway and the project remains on track to start welcoming its first students from September this year. In order to minimise disruption to the road network, Midland Metro Alliance will be undertaking the works on Castle Hill in two phases from spring 2021 through to summer 2022. Traffic will first be maintained one-way in the direction of Castlegate island with clearly marked diversion routes in place to assist road users in completing their essential journeys. While construction is underway, those travelling to Dudley town centre, either by private vehicle or public transport, are being asked to leave more time for their journeys with diversion in in place. Access to funding for the Institute of Technology was provided by Frontier Development Capital Ltd (FDC), a fund manager working closely with property developers to arrange investments from the WMCA’s Collective Investment Fund (CIF), Revolving Investment fund (RIF) and Brownfield Land and Property Development Fund (BLPDF).