Warrington: Using cross-sector collaboration
Matt Crompton is the Chair of the Town Deal Board for Warrington. Matt tells us the story of Warrington and what the Towns Fund will mean for his local community.
Imagine you are walking through your Town five years from now. What might you see and hear? How might it feel to live, work or relax here?
Warrington is a connected and united community, with a bustling Town Centre that is reflective of its happy, healthy and diverse residents. It is a Town bursting with energy and ambition, where the wellbeing of our residents is always a priority.
As an important well-connected commuter town with a rich heritage going back to Roman times, Warrington is a place where people are proud to live, work and play. Those who are born in our Town choose to remain and are proud to put down roots here. Warrington’s impressive cultural offering, a strong range and quality of jobs, access to green space, key commuter links and high-performing schools attracts outsiders, all of which contributes towards making our Town an even better place to reside.
An ideal choice for people from all walks of life, from families to young professionals and older generations, our Town brings people and industry sectors together, including education, healthcare, retail, leisure, arts and more, to ensure a happy and well-rounded lifestyle for all. Through collaboration and connectivity, Warrington is a place where people thrive.
Warrington Market opened in July 2020 as part of the larger Time Square redevelopment © Warrington Borough Council
You decide to write a blog to share with your network about the changes underway. In it you highlight some of the ways the Towns Fund programme helped to unlock this new future for your Town. Start a post...
It has been a real journey for Warrington as we have sought to continue to maximise the potential of our Town through the Towns Fund programme.
We have an aspirational vision for Warrington that includes putting education, culture, digitalisation and an improved environmental impact at the forefront of the Town’s agenda. With funds and resources from the Towns Fund we have come closer to fulfilling some of the crucial elements to this vision to progress projects such as our Health & Wellbeing Hub and Active Travel programme.
This vital funding has helped us facilitate our ideas and dreams for the future of Warrington, which involves cross-sector collaboration across the Town to create an environment everyone wants to be a part of.
We have unified the Town through a collective sense of responsibility, and the whole Town working towards a common goal. With this, we have shifted focus so that it is all about the residents and what they want from their Town – and we continue to respond to this through ongoing engagement activities.
Engagement has also been at the forefront of Warrington’s agenda and the Towns Fund allowed us to prove this in new and exciting ways. Our primary mission was to improve the way of life for the people, businesses, charities and other organisations in the town, which is exactly what we have achieved.
Through our Town Deal funded projects, we have helped create a Town that our residents are even more proud of, and brought them on the journey with us throughout, encouraging them to engage and inform how services and industries have evolved.
We are listening to the experiences and feedback of the people who matter most - our residents - and have shaped our plans for the future around their suggestions.
As a result, the people of Warrington understand that this is their Town, and they have become a crucial part of its history by offering their feedback and helping us to shape a vision for Warrington’s future.
How will you use your role within the community of your Town to ensure you collectively reach this future?
My role will be to help ensure that all the people benefiting from the Towns Fund are coming together to shout about how improved services are impacting their daily lives.
I will focus on communicating this message of collaboration, focusing on responding to the evolving needs of Warrington’s residents. Our future will be shaped by our engagement and collaboration with Warrington’s communities.
We will encourage leaders across the Town to nurture public momentum around our projects. A key part of this is sharing the benefits of our plans and continuing to encourage widespread community engagement and action.
The nature of the Towns Fund work means that some objectives are extensive and will take time, but we are proud that our plans are aspirational and ambitious. We want everybody in the town to feel confident and proud of their choice to live in Warrington.
We want people to shout about the fantastic lifestyle they have as a result of the key changes we are able to make to secure a bright future for our Town.
This open call story was submitted by Matt Crompton, Chair of the Town Deal Board for Warrington.
Warrington is one of 101 places invited by the Government to develop Town Deal proposals to deliver long-term economic recovery, clean growth, jobs and prosperity as part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund. Warrington has submitted their Town Investment Plan and has secured a Town Deal worth up to £22.1 million. Warrington is currently developing business cases to take forward their Town Deal proposals.