Members of the Penrith Futures Partnership met last Friday with Dr Neil Hudson MP to discuss their approaches to playing a positive role in the regeneration and development of Penrith town centre. Two days earlier Dr Hudson had used his parliamentary privilege to make a speech at an adjournment debate that he had secured on levelling up rural communities. It was therefore unsurprising that this was a very positive meeting in which there was shared understanding and agreement on many of the issues that are currently impacting on rural towns like Penrith.
The group talked about their ‘Reimagining and Repurposing Penrith Town Centre’ document and the rationale behind it, which Hilary Snell described as, “focusing on making accurate information and contemporary research available to the residents of Penrith to enable them to meaningfully and constructively engage in discussions about their town centre”.
There followed a wide ranging discussion that covered many issues such as town centre regeneration, repurposing town centre premises, education and training opportunities for young people, the importance of Penrith as a rural hub, rural transport and connectivity, business rates, planning issues, tourism and the opportunities that could be developed to exploit our strategic location.
All agreed that a great many rural hub towns are facing challenging times and, as all towns have very different identities in very different contexts, there is no one solution; this is both a local and national issue that can only be addressed by both local and national measures.
All in attendance felt that it was a very helpful and constructive meeting and were optimistic that Penrith will have a bright and prosperous future if we all work towards a shared aim whilst supporting each other’s efforts. Dr Hudson recognised that Penrith Futures is a diverse and unique collaboration that has set about working on a distinct contribution in the expectation that it will be useful to residents and all the various partnerships in the town.
Following the meeting Dr Hudson MP stated: “It was a pleasure to meet with this group who are so passionate about Penrith and the surrounding area. It was a great honour last week to hold a debate on support for levelling up rural communities in Cumbria. In the debate I raised the issues of second homes, rural transport and broadband among many others. These issues must be addressed and I hope we can all work together to ensure they are.”
