March 2016 - Planning permission was granted in principle to Brickhill Estates for the demolition of the existing AGORA building and construction of a new mixed use development, retaining 90 car parking spaces for the town and 100 residential homes, however the applicant decided not to proceed with this development, and since this time another developer TOWN has become interested in the development
December 2017 Update - A meeting was held by MKC on the 22nd December regards the plans for the sale of the Agora Car Park; this was attended by representatives of WGTC and local businesses and community representatives.
WGTC are in support of the development of the Agora, but understand that the car park has been earmarked for a predominantly residential development, meaning the loss of the current free parking within the Town centre.
The car park was leased by MKC who owned the freehold of this to the AGORA, and had been approached by the developer to sell the freehold to them for development. At the meeting held it was agreed that, MKC would sell the car park to town for an agreed figure, but this would be subject to the following stringent conditions:
i – Setting up a working committee, representing local and community interests for the development
ii – That any developments are subject to planning permission being agreed by MKC
12.11.18 Deal struck with UK-Swedish development team for £25m Agora regeneration. You can view the press release here
Timeline for the Agora redevelopment
08.05.19 Hoardings to protect the Agora site from potential vandalism have now been erected around the site. The
hoarding of the building is necessary for the new owners to comply with the
terms of their public liability insurance and the hoardings serve to take reasonable
steps to prevent access to / climbing of the building. As a result the area
to the west of the building was identified as a key risk area both for
unobserved access and potential anti-social behaviour, and unfortunately means that the back entrance via the old Co-Op to Buckingham St is no longer accessible by foot. The alternative entrance route is opposite the bus stops on Church St.
08.04.19 - Works to be undertaken on exploratory borehole for the examination of buried services or foundations around site using a rotary drilling method map of the site to be examined here
2nd April 2019 - TOWN have now completed the purchase of the Agora site and are looking forward to next part of their journey see the press release here
22nd March 2019 - Market Traders trade from the Square and units are emptied from the Agora
Following notice from Leyland Holdings to the Market Traders from
the Agora Friday market, they have now relocated to their new home in The
Square. A great sense of community spirit was certainly observed with
some new faces and plenty of the regular customers popping by to purchase goods
from the stalls. All of the businesses have now left the Agora following
eviction notices. WGTC have managed to assist some of these businesses to
new or shared premises so that they can continue to trade.
13th March 2019 - Notice Served to the Agora businesses and traders
The Agora has served notice to all of it tenants and market traders. It is now confirmed that the Agora will cease to trade from 18th March. The market traders last trading date in front of the Agora is confirmed as the 15th March. However WGTC have been working behind the scenes to assist those businesses affected by this news to relocate to new or available premises around the parish. The market traders will relocate to The Square, beginning 22nd March.
The following press release has been provided by the Town Clerk
If you are a local business please get in touch if you require support
Stakeholder Meeting March 2019
A well attended and organised event from TOWN, the new owners of the Agora site. The full day workshop invited the various stakeholders and representations of the community, including students from the Radcliffe School to be a part the evolving development of this site. The Workshops aim was to provide an overview of where the development is at and what it can bring to the town of Wolverton.
There was several briefings, which included an update on the history and heritage of Wolverton, by Bill Griffiths and the current vision of Milton Keynes and how Wolverton fits with this, along with the report on the parking flows both at the Agora car park and around the town, this was then followed by a walkabout to the areas proposed for development.
Following this, all of the stakeholders were invited to discuss the proposed development that the architects had provided so far through thematic work groups, with the focus on the new buildings and the spaces between by working with maps and building blocks in a range of groups. This allowed all of the groups to provide comments and ideas on how best the development could move forwards, along with the students creating designs for new terraced style housing that would be in-keeping with the town.
The day in itself was a positive move for the town and those that were in attendance felt engaged and that they had a voice that the developer would listen to. There is now a rough timeline in place for when developments at the site will begin. See here for further details
WGTC welcomes your feedback on this proposal and we would love to hear your thoughts on this. Please forward any comments on this to us by email