Huge £17.5MILLION boost for England's ‘saddest town' where high street is dubbed ‘death row'
ENGLAND'S "saddest town", where the high street has been dubbed 'death row', has been given a huge financial boost to improve it's town centre.
Barrow-in-Furness was once a thriving port town, but fell into disrepair after jobs in the steel industry dried up, with most shops now boarded up.
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The Office for National Statistics has classified it as one of England 's most deprived towns, and a YouTuber who explores the UK's roughest areas described it as " England 's saddest town."
Police battle rampant drug gangs, and many buildings have been vandalised with graffiti and broken windows.
Barrow resident James Riche previously told The Sun: 'Covid hit the town centre hard.
"I call it death row because so many of the shops are shut and boarded up. We avoid it."
However, the Cumbrian town's look is about to change.
Barrow is home to the BAE Systems factory, which builds the UK's key military submarines - including the Trident nuclear programme.
And because of its "importance to National Defence" has been granted a whopping £200 million from the government, which will be used to give the town a facelift over the next 10 years.
This is on top of the £17.5 million of cash that was given to the town back in October 2021.
The council said: 'Extra funding made available through Team Barrow means significantly more money is now available and this has the potential to deliver a more transformational regeneration of the town centre.
'The additional funding from Team Barrow would be on top of the money already committed by Government for the current town centre regeneration works.
'In recognition of the town's strategic importance to national defence and security, the Government has agreed to invest more than £200m in Barrow over the next 10 years.
'Team Barrow will use this money – and seek to secure additional private and public sector investment – to help transform the town, delivering improvements across health, education, transport, the economy and community.'
Plans for the regeneration are currently being finalised, but could include a new and improved theatre and events space, better food and drink offerings and leisure and market facilities.
Simon Case, chair of Team Barrow, said: 'We have bold and ambitious plans for Barrow and this includes transforming the town centre.
'While these are very early stages, with a significant amount of work now required to develop these plans, we are clear in our vision that this must deliver more than simply high street regeneration.
'The Government's investment in Barrow presents us with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address the challenges which face the town.
"This means that in addition to delivering a town centre that has a strong retail, leisure and cultural offering, we will also prioritise improvements in housing, health and education.'
Bae Systems is set to drastically expand its workforce, due to a surge in demand, meaning that the population in Barrow is set to swell from 60,000 to 90,000 over the next decade.
Some of the newly employed workers and their families will be housed in a new 800 home waterfront development, called Marine Village.
Case has likened the regeneration of Barrow to the town of Bourneville, which was built specifically to house Cadbury 's factory workers and their farmers.
He said: "With the pressure that we've got on getting the Astute boats finished, then Dreadnought and then Aukus, we started to focus on this two years ago for almost Bournville-like reasons.'
"The town is a strategic national asset, although it hasn't always been viewed that way.
'Pretty quickly, we realised we needed Team Barrow to create an environment that would deliver that happy, skilled workforce we need to support the defence nuclear enterprise.
"Thanks to Mr Putin and Mr Xi, the business case makes itself!'
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