WORK on an ambitious multi-million-pound regeneration scheme for Barrow town centre is to get under way 'immediately'.

It comes after a leading team of designers was appointed to get the project off the ground.

The work is to include a 'reimagining' of the outside and inside of the market hall and improvements to Duke Street. 

The scheme has received backing of £16 million from the Government's Levelling Up Fund and will incorporate elements of the £25 million #BrilliantBarrow project.

Manchester-based firm Buttress Architects, alongside designers OPEN and engineers WSP, was selected to deliver the design element of the project following a tender process.

Cllr Ann Thomson, the leader of Barrow Borough Council, stressed that the work would be more than a refresh of the market hall.

She described it as a 'much larger, more ambitious' project that would 'herald a new era for the high street in the town'.

“We’re excited to have appointed such a prestigious team, led by Buttress, and look forward to engaging with the community as part of the process," she said.

“We know the way people use their high street is changing in towns and cities the length and breadth of the country and that this change has been further exacerbated by the Covid pandemic."

Buttress Architects has been at the helm of a number of award-winning designs for properties and the built environment.

The firm's catalogue of work includes breathing new life into Manchester's Mackie Mayor, a Grade II-listed meat market hall that had sat empty for more than two decades.

Chithra Marsh, associate director at Buttress Architects, said a series of engagement events and workshops would be held in the coming months.

"We encourage local people to come along, have their say, and help shape the vision for the market hall," she said.

Leading masterplanner and landscape architect OPEN will be working alongside Buttress.

Mark Foster, associate at OPEN, said: “We are excited to continue our work supporting Barrow Borough Council in realising their regeneration ambition.

"It’s such an important project and we’re looking forward to creating a vibrant new asset for the town.”