THE group behind a threatened performing arts centre has called for a public debate over the future of Chester’s £400m Northgate Development.
In December, The Chronicle reported the Tory-led city council was considering relocating or even ditching the £18.5m replacement for the Gateway Theatre, which forms one element of the retail-driven regeneration scheme.
This is in a desperate attempt to rescue the project, including a House of Fraser store and 60 shops, but which developers ING can no longer afford to finance due to the global credit crunch.
Chester Performs, the organisation responsible for the development of the performing arts centre, wonders about the worth of the scheme.
Chairman Geoff Clifton is appalled the future of the arts centre is even being contemplated.
He said: “Does the administration honestly believe that Cestrians will find this acceptable? Unbelievable though it seems, we have asked for clarification from the city and this indeed appears to be the case.”
“This is despite the performing arts centre being central to the Government’s approval of the Compulsory Purchase Order. It also disregards the destruction that this move would cause to the city’s Chester Renaissance project and its bid to be a ‘must see European city’.
“In particular, we are wondering what the public are now actually going to get from their investment in the Northgate Development.
“If the performing arts centre is axed from the scheme, as well as the council offices (‘the slug’), then, other than the library and the market, what is left apart from rent-producing elements?
“It is time to start asking some searching questions before we allow the administration to give away a large chunk of the city centre for very little in exchange.”
Mr Clifton said the £18.5m performing arts centre was the biggest single publicly funded project in the crucial Chester Renaissance project and represented eight times the scale of investment of any new public visitor attraction planned for the city in the next decade. It is set to produce £4m per year in visitor spend.
He added: “If the council offices were costing £40m and the performing arts centre £18.5m then that is nearly £60m lost in public benefit, along with £4m per year in visitor spend to the City. This is not tenable.”
City council deputy leader Stephen Mosley was this week loathe to discuss behind-the-scenes discussions with ING about what the revised Northgate scheme might look like. But he appeared to be backing away from the notion the performing arts centre might disappear, saying this was “not an option we are actively pursuing at the moment”.
He added: “For the moment, you can assume the performing arts centre is staying where it is.”
