Letter from Warrington Borough Council
to Dick Tregea
Many thanks for your email of 4 March regarding
the Government response to the above report.
We are keen to move on from the New Town era,
and look forward to delivering our visions and plans for the future
rather than considering life as a former New Town. There has been
a lot of work undertaken nationally and locally that should help
us all make sensible and sustainable decisions about new settlements.
Our joint work on Growth Point programme is a case in point and
our emerging core strategies will again move us forwards with
revitalised visions and objectives.
We believe we have all learnt the lessons from
the New Town era and know what worked and what did not. We appreciate
that for some former New Towns the cost of putting things right
and the need to renew infrastructure that is coming of age all
at once does present funding problems. The Government's response
recognises this, but also makes the point that most towns and
cities have continuing investment needs.
We believe that the Government's response to
the follow up report is fair and certainly from Warrington's point
of view we see delivery of our regeneration and growth point programmes
as the focus for sustainable growth. We would always welcome additional
government funding to help deliver our plans, but we think we
should accept that being labelled a "New Town" is no
longer necessary or helpful.
18 March 2009
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