Phil Jones, Vice-Chair of Goole Town Deal Board.

The New Year heralds the start of an exciting new chapter in plans to deliver a multi-million pound package of improvements aimed at stimulating long-term economic growth in the Goole area, as the Goole Town Deal programme moves into its delivery phase.

Back in June 2021, Goole received confirmation that it had secured a £25 million slice of the Government’s Town Deal funding after submitting an ambitious Town Investment Plan setting out clear objectives aimed at achieving economic growth, giving the town’s residents equal access to training and job opportunities, improving connectivity to and around the town, building a sense of pride in Goole and making its town centre a hub of activity. The plan also includes objectives around making Goole a place where both people and businesses want to settle, and an environmentally responsible town. 

The Goole Town Deal Board, which includes Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy and a wide variety of public, private and voluntary sector organisations with a shared commitment to regenerating Goole and growing its economy, is responsible for ensuring that its strategic vision for the town is clear and capable of achieving its objectives within the timescales specified by the Government.

The Town Investment Plan identified a series of projects that would help to achieve the Board’s objectives for Goole, including the refurbishment of the town’s Market Hall and a Public Realm project that will enhance the town centre with high quality lighting, soft landscaping and improvements aimed at promoting walking and cycling. There will be a Property Activation Fund to encourage property owners, developers and tenants to carry out improvements to buildings in the town centre and bring empty or under-used properties back into use. There’s a project that involves refurbishing East Riding Leisure Goole and enhancing the leisure offering there, and another aimed at regenerating the Victoria Pleasure Ground sports stadium so that it can be enjoyed by as many local user groups as possible. As Goole is highly vulnerable to flooding, the Environment Agency was already intending to  reinforce flood defences along the Dutch River. A contribution from the Town Deal means that this work can now go ahead sooner than planned and will incorporate a ‘greenway’ corridor to enable pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy the great outdoors. There are also plans to create an enhanced transport hub and arrival/departure experience at Goole Station, and improve the nearby subways. One of Board’s flagship projects is called Opportunity Goole, which will be a ‘one-stop shop’ aimed at giving everyone easier access to information about the Town Deal, local job opportunities, business support and more. This new service will be located in Goole Library and further information about it will be announced early in the New Year.

During the last 18 months, a huge amount of work has been taking place behind the scenes to develop business cases for each of these projects and ensure that they all work well together. The Board sees the projects as individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that will come together to have a transformative effect on the town centre. The business case process is almost complete so, as we move into 2023, the delivery phase will begin. The Goole Town Deal Board is required to complete the projects by March 2026, which, rather fittingly, coincides with Goole’s bicentenary year.

Vice-Chair of the Goole Town Deal Board, Phil Jones, said: “As the delivery phase begins, the many organisations involved in the various projects that will be delivered with Goole Town Deal funding will be identifying opportunities for local people, business owners and other stakeholders to be involved and informed every step of the way. There will be plenty of opportunity for local people to help shape key aspects of each of the projects as they develop through a series of community engagement events and activities.

Phil explained that some work has been carried out already: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government made some early funding allocations to towns involved in the Town Deal process, which had to be spent by a strict deadline and was ideally to be used to improve outdoor facilities. Goole was given £750,000 and some of this was used to carry out urgent repairs to the leaking roof at the Market Hall, as well as improvements at Oakhill Nature Reserve and both West and South Park. It was also used to provide new seating in the precinct, and new energy efficient floodlighting at the Victoria Pleasure Ground to reduce operating costs.

“The Board had originally planned to provide Old Goole with improved broadband capability using Town Deal funding but, as a result of us highlighting the issue and the Government seeking assurance that this could not be delivered via its other digital funding initiatives, this will now go ahead without Town Deal funding. It’s a win-win situation as it means that the Board’s objective has been achieved and the money that would have been spent on that can now be considered for re-investment across the other projects.

“It’s anticipated that the total amount of money invested in Goole will be far higher than the £25 million Town Deal funding allocation because many of the partner organisations involved are providing match-funding towards the cost of the various projects that the Board has identified. Plus, the improvements that will be taking place will undoubtedly generate even more investment in the town, and that’s before you factor in the social value in terms of the benefit to people’s health, wellbeing and prosperity.”