Haverfordwest riverside regeneration site in need of development partner

THE regeneration of Haverfordwest’s riverside site will need a private partner to ensure the council “more than manage what we have got” for the future.

A development partner is being sought to join Pembrokeshire County Council in its plans to improve the Riverside Shopping Centre – that it purchased earlier this year for more than £3million.

Cabinet member for economy Cllr Paul Miller told cabinet on Monday (September 6) that it had not been the council’s intention to deliver “whole scale redevelopment on our own” at this site.

There are “key developments” in the county town that the council is implementing such as Western Quayside, multi-storey proposals and linking the Castle to the town, he added.

Since the purchase the local authority had been “just managing” the site and the financial performance was a “long way from our worst case scenario” said Cllr Miller but it was “always recognised the need to do more than manage what we have got” with a “public private combination to drive improvements.”

The total value of the works over the period of the partnership – potentially more than 20 years – is more than £30million

A report to cabinet states that the plan is enter into a “long term” arrangement “primarily to develop the recently acquired Riverside site for commercial and community uses, but also with the potential for the development partner to support the delivery of other mixed use development, including residential, office, commercial and community uses within Haverfordwest town centre and on a range of other sites identified and agreed by the parties.”

Cabinet supported the plan to invite and evaluate tenders for the appointment of a development partner with the decision to award the contract delegated to the director of community services Dr Steven Jones.