THE Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh officially opened the Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub at Warrington today.
The Royal party were greeted by thousands of wellwishers who welcomed them to the town.
The hub is a unique project, which has been 15 years in the making, and transforms a former landfill site into a £30million state of the art community facility providing a wide range of leisure, health and cultural services all under one roof.
The “Orford Park Project” is widely regarded as an example of best practice in promoting joint service delivery and economic regeneration in one of the town’s most deprived areas.
More than 20 national, regional and local organisations are actively involved in the delivery of the scheme which provides first-class community facilities.
Cllr Terry O’Neill, leader of Warrington Borough Council, who was among those to meet the Queen said: “I am absolutely delighted with what we have achieved; this brand new building pushes the boundaries of public service provision allowing the council and our partners to house many important services flexibly under one roof. This is something that will greatly benefit the local community and that the whole borough can be proud of.
“What we have here today is a state of the art facility in Warrington will be the envy of the whole country.”
The project has been led throughout by the borough council, however it will be managed by LiveWire, a new not-for-profit community interest company in partnership with TONP (The Orford Neighbourhood Project), Warrington Collegiate, Warrington Wolves, William Beamont High School, Warrington Disability Partnership, Network Warrington and NHS Warrington.
It was the Queen’s fourth visit to Warrington. In 1968, she visited Bridge Street to see a renovation scheme masterminded by Warrington Civic Society and in 1979 she visited the Golden Square shopping centre, while in 1998 she opened the new Hollins Park Hospital at Winwick.
Pictures: The Queen and Prince Philip at the Orford Jubilee Community Hub.
For more pictures CLICK HERE
10 Comments
A fantastic day for Warrington having The Queen open this new building.
What takes the shine off things is that LiveWire the nOT-FOR-PROFIT Org is putting the prices up – so Warrington under Labour its costing us more to stay fit.
well done Gary you have more photos of the Queen than the Northern News, do they not bother with news from and around Warrington….. WELL DONE
Yes it was a shame lots of people could not get to see the visit and watched the news hoping to see Warrington YES WELL DONE GARY
Yes I agree lots of people were disappointed as they could not get to see the visit,
Well they’ve got to pay for all this jubilee related nonsense somehow.
the ten councilors on the Exe Board have a £370,000 slush fund and they won’t tell anybody what they will do will it. It’s our money and we should have the facts.
May be the Queen could come back and open the new Asda distribution site at Omega North – I bet people of Burtonwood are looking forward to all that haulage. If it brings NEW jobs not relocated jobs to Warrington it must be a good thing???
Sadly I couldn’t go either but Warrington Worldwide to the rescue 🙂 Great pictures and video Gary. Like already said ‘Well Done’ and thanks 🙂
I thought it was for one-off things like the work this year in the town centre and fixing Bank Park, or else it goes back into the coffers? So no great mystery there then!
…and suddenly being able to do work in areas that are target seats for Labour?