Gold Street in Northampton set for £350,000 facelift after round of shop grants are approved

More than £350,000 will be spent improving the look of shop fronts in one of Northampton's main shopping streets after eight businesses took up a council grant scheme.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Aug 2016, 08:30 BST
Updated 25th Aug 2016, 20:26 BST
Eight businesses have applied for shop front grants on Gold Street as part of a bid to give the street a facelift.Eight businesses have applied for shop front grants on Gold Street as part of a bid to give the street a facelift.
Eight businesses have applied for shop front grants on Gold Street as part of a bid to give the street a facelift.

Northampton Borough Council has now committed more than £50,000 towards improvements in Gold Street as part of its Business incentive Scheme.

Landlords who took up the authority’s offer for financial help to do up their shop have contributed a further £300,000 of their own money towards refurbishing building fronts, replacing windows and replacing damaged woodwork. Some have completed the work already.

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Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Enterprise and Planning, Councillor Tim Hadland, said: “We were determined to give this gateway area of the town centre a facelift and it has been very pleasing to see both landlords and businesses demonstrating their investment in the area.”

Chris Kent, who owns record store Spunout, received £5,000 from the scheme, which has already been spent replacing the front door and removing tired wood a the front of the shop.

He said: “We had wanted to get things freshened up on he outside for some time now; we had a change around inside and thought it was time to redo the outside too.

“So the money meant we could do a bit more than your standard paint job.”

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In the Chronicle and Echo’s yearly high street survey last year Gold Street had 11 vacant units out of 62, one of the better performing town centre streets.

The programme involves the following eight Gold Street buildings:

10 Gold Street

Building front enhancement – in planning

19 Gold Street

Shop front enhancement - completed

25 Gold Street

Building front refurbishment and renovation

30 Gold Street

Three flats on upper level, general refurbishment

42 Gold Street

Renovation of heritage windows and stonework

48 Gold Street

Major refit, two flats on upper level, separate entrances to shops/flats and change shop front

57 Gold Street

Shop front enhancement - completed

60 Gold Street

Shop front enhancement – in planning

Related topics:LandlordsChris KentNorthampton