Council leader says Worksop university and business hub projects will go ahead – despite ‘distractions’

The leader told how the county council’s move to ‘plough ahead’ with plans to scrap district councils such as Bassetlaw would have ‘no negative impact’ on the new university campus and Middletons business hub.

Simon says the two multi-million pound projects had the potential to be ‘game-changers’ for Worksop town centre.

The £3.5 million Bridgecourt university campus - specialising in health sector training - is expected to help tackle the skills gap and bring a key building back into use - increasing footfall.

And it is hoped the £4 million state-of-the-art business hub on Bridge Street will ‘change the whole make-up of the top end of town’.

Middletons - which Simon described as a ‘complex’ project - will house 34 rentable offices and offer new start-ups and small businesses a place to ‘grow and thrive’.

However, despite being confident Bassetlaw District Council would deliver the projects he described Nottinghamshire County Council’s proposals as ‘disappointing’.

He said: “One of my main concerns is that tackling Covid-19 and supporting the local economy and local people should be a priority.

“This is a very difficult time and I would prefer if we could concentrate on that.

“We’ve been working for a very long time to bring projects together that will shape the future of the town and we’ve brought a huge amount of investment in.

“Now it’s more important than ever before to have the potential for more money coming into town centres.”

Demolition work at Middletons began in February 2020 until the project was halted by coronavirus lockdown.

However building work on the final phase is expected to commence in the coming weeks - with a proposed completion date in autumn 2021.

Simon hopes to see ‘some visual changes’ to the old Bridgecourt building on Bridge Place ‘in the near future’, adding “I want work to commence as soon as possible.”

He added that a ‘horrendous’ amount of Government red tape meant the council still had to ‘jump through hoops’ to make a business case for the new campus to D2N2 – the local enterprise partnerships for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

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