Traders and business owners say delays to the Bishop Auckland redevelopment programme are holding back the town.
Durham County Council’s multi-million pound scheme intends to transform the County Durham town’s dilapidated high street and key public services.
Work is underway to build a new bus station complex and public spaces, while the local authority has also partnered with The Auckland Project to deliver improvements.
However, Graham Thomas, a local entrepreneur at Alka Living, has called for a fairer funding process that benefits more local businesses.
Funding for the large-scale programme has come from several Government grants, created as part of the Conservative government’s levelling up agenda, and private investment.
The council said more than £250 million has supported several schemes in Bishop Auckland over the last 12 years. Schemes such as the council’s Property Reuse Fund have been launched to support businesses - but some people with a stake in the town argue it should be simplified.
“I appreciate we wouldn’t be having this conversation without the Auckland Project but it’s called the Future High Streets Fund and the high street is a worse place than it was previously,” Mr Thomas said. “The money should support locals but it hasn’t been as effective as it could have been.”
Mr Thomas is behind plans to transform the town’s former Masonic Hall into an artist’s workshop/ studio and apartments.
He added: “I and everyone else in Bishop Auckland want a town with somewhere to go to. You want to have a drink in the centre of town and not get a bus into Durham, you don’t want to walk down the high street and see smashed windows.
“I want local businesses to succeed and so does everyone else, which is why people are getting frustrated.”
Former Masterchef contestant and Bishop Auckland native Mike Bartley is set to open his new Jord restaurant on Newgate Street but has been left counting the cost of a recent arson attack on the town centre premises.
While he remains keen to open the new venture “as soon as possible”, he says everyone wants to improve the area.
Mr Bartley added: “Everybody locally would like to see Bishop rejuvenated. It’s definitely taking longer than anyone had hoped.
“I’m from Bishop and I wanted to open here. I have a connection to Bishop Auckland and the people in it and that’s why I wanted to cook food for residents and hopefully people from further afield. I wouldn’t be where I am now without the support of people from Bishop after Masterchef and I want to repay that.”
Another business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said they have had to “jump through a lot of hoops” just to apply for funding and said it is restrictive to small businesses.
They said: “For someone like me, a sole business owner in Bishop Auckland, trying to access the grants is nuts.”
On the current condition of Newgate Street, they bemoaned the state it is today. “[The council] left it to go to rack and ruin,” they said. “I don’t know why they spent so much on a bus shelter and the Kingsway Square site. If that money was mine I would not have spent that much, I’d have spent it on bringing businesses back to the centre, doing up the shops, and making Newgate Street more of a destination again.
“You look at all the empty shops and you think the council would be trying to help people revive them as much as possible but it has taken a long time to get to this stage.”
A Durham County Council spokesperson said: “We do not agree with the comments made by Mr Thomas. All potential schemes that the Property Reuse Fund is asked to support are assessed against strict criteria and checks are carried out to ensure money is given out in accordance with that criteria.
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“We nevertheless share Mr Thomas and the business owner’s passion for regenerating Bishop Auckland and remain happy to work with any interested parties for the benefit of the town.”
It hopes to launch a second round of the Property Reuse Fund programme in the near future.
The spokesperson added: “We are happy to provide advice to and work with all applicants to try and ensure that their bids address the criteria.”
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