On a beautiful Monday morning it was exciting to attend the long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony for the new Charles Street Development. After years of planning and preparation, work is now underway and good progress has already been made. WDDC chairman Gillian Summers joined forces with the chairman of the County Council, John Wilson and Paul Hodgkinson of developers Simons to do the honours, underlining the fact that this is a real partnership project. The first phase of work consisting of the new WDDC offices, adult learning centre and library should be complete and occupied by the end of next year. With the current need for increased efficiency and more savings the move is a major step in the council’s strategy to protect services and keep council tax low. The second phase will follow, bringing £60m of private investment and over 600 new private sector jobs with shops, hotel, affordable housing, 485 space public car park and more. Of course, there will be some disruption during construction and the council will be doing all it can to reduce the impact.
Tags: Charles Street, Council, Dorchester
