Gove backs town with £20 million 'levelling up' boost

Michael Gove was in Wednesbury yesterday evening to announce Sandwell as the beneficiary of one of the country's first two 'Levelling Up Partnerships', which will target areas identified as in specific need of support.

The scheme will see £11.5 million earmarked helping to turn a former sewage works in the Friar Park area of town, creating 650 new homes.

A further £4.5 million will go on improvements to Wednesbury town centre, including new lighting, pedestrian areas and greenery to make the area more attractive and support small businesses.

Money will also be made available for closed-circuit television to crack down on crime and fly-tipping, and for bollards to prevent motorcycles being ridden in pedestrian areas.

Announcing the plan at the town's museum and art gallery in Holyhead Road, Levelling Up Secretary Mr Gove said: "Wednesbury is a proud market town with great buildings, and an ecosystem of small businesses, and a market which has been very successful.

"We want to make sure that more people know about Wednesbury, and these measures aim to back small businesses and make it an attractive place to invest in, be it a cafe or a bookshop.

"We have spent more than 100 hours in conversation with different groups across Wednesbury who have told us about the strengths and weaknesses of the area."

Mr Gove said one of the issues identified in the conversations had been anti-social behaviour.

"Some of the measures will be used to tackle the scourge of off-road motorbikes causing a nuisance in the borough."

The Friar Park urban village scheme will see the money used to clean-up the former sewage works so the site could be redeveloped by a private company.

"The scheme at Friar Park is principally for private housing, but we have been working with Black Country Housing Association about using powers to ensure that any developer will build additional affordable housing elsewhere in the borough."