Hednesford £50 million town centre transformation due to complete early June21st May 2012

The newly-realigned Victoria Street in Hednesford town centre is set to open within the next two weeks as St. Modwen’s £50 million transformation scheme takes a major step forward.

Seven new retail units at the Chase Gateway on Market Street are also due to be completed in early June, making way for the construction of the new Victoria Shopping Park, which will include an 80,000 sq ft store Tesco and a 640 space car park, a terrace of non-food retail units, and a retail kiosk and replacement community building, all served by new bus stops.

This next phase of construction work, which will create more than 600 jobs once completed, will see the closure of Market Street, from Cardigan Place to Rugeley Road from around 6 June for two weeks.

St. Modwen development surveyor Mark Watkins said the swift progress of the scheme meant that the Victoria Shopping Park was set to be fully open by the end of the year:

“With the opening of Victoria Street and the completion of the Market Street retail units over the next few weeks, St. Modwen’s regeneration project is on track and we are getting closer to achieving our vision for Hednesford town centre, including the opening of Tesco and other retail units ready for Christmas trading.”

The retail scheme is the final stage in the regeneration project which has already delivered four retail units facing Rugeley Road at Chase Gateway, a Reserve Forces and Cadets Association (RFCA) building located between the new Tesco store and Hednesford Park and the Hednesford Bingo club. A 10,000 sq ft community facility to replace the former Aquarius Community/Dance Hall will be completed later this year.

Glenn Watson, Economic Development Manager at Cannock Chase Council, said: “As we enter a new phase of the Hednesford Gateway project we would like to thank the people of Hednesford for their patience and the support they have shown to the construction teams working on site.

“The closure of Market Street is likely to bring some disruption to pedestrians and vehicles in the town centre and I’d like to apologise in advance for this. The works are necessary to deliver this phase of the Hednesford Gateway project by the end of 2012.”

Construction began on the comprehensive town centre scheme in April 2011 after developer St. Modwen was granted planning approval by Cannock Chase Council.