Enhancing Dover’s cultural and creative offer and better connecting the high street and waterfront lie at the heart of a successful £3.2m bid by Dover District Council (DDC) to the Government’s Future High Streets Fund

Together with a £1.7m commitment from DDC’s Town Centre Regeneration Fund, the £4.9m plans will deliver two key projects designed to increase footfall and local spending on the high street. 

The plans complement existing projects to rejuvenate Dover town centre, including the £9.1m Lottery funded restoration of the Grade I Listed Maison Dieu and a £2.95m Coastal Community Fund project to reinvent the Market Square

Bench Street creative space 

At the heart of the latest plans is a £2.9m project to comprehensively redevelop part of Bench Street.  Providing a key thoroughfare between the waterfront and town centre, a new creative space will form part of a mixed-use development that will also include seven residential units.  

Reimaging the Townwall Street/A20 Subway

A £2.0m reimagining of the subway under the A20 on Townwall Street will encourage greater movement of people between the town centre, waterfront and cruise terminals, and link with the £250m Dover Western Docks redevelopment, including the new marina. 

Together with the proposed Creative Centre at Bench Street this will enhance the offer of the lower high street and create a feature for the area. 

Roger Walton, DDC’s Strategic Director (Operations and Commercial), said: “Town centres have a key role to play as we come out of lockdown.  This new funding helps us to deliver projects that will change public perceptions of Dover, from a place to pass-through to a destination people want to visit, stay and live with a vibrant mix of retail, leisure and cultural opportunities appealing to both residents and visitors alike.”

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