Levelling up Greenock Town Centre
from the Oak Mall with A78 at ground level
Inverclyde Council was successfully awarded UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund in 2023 to transform the heart of Greenock Town Centre.
The proposals will create new civic spaces, a restructured more outward looking town centre retail offer, improve links between various parts of the town centre and the waterfront and build in capacity for a new education/college facility and town centre housing.
To do this, the Levelling Up Fund project will remove the A8 flyover brining the road to ground level to increase access, remove the Bullring Roundabout, Hector McNeil House and 40% of the existing indoor retail space in the Oak Mall.
towards the Oak Mall
This will be replaced by a low-level trunk road which brings the town together rather than split the town centre in two, with easier access to the town centre for visitors and residents.
It will allow the Oak Mall to be restructured as an outward looking Retail and Leisure Quarter recreating a functional heart to the centre.
It will create space for a new learning quarter and campus anchored on a new college facility and the existing Greenock library alongside opportunities for new town centre homes. It will also create opportunities for a new cultural centre and quarter in the town centre around the Glebe Building.
It will allow for the creation of a new open civic area in the town centre creating to be more welcoming to visitors and residents and improved connections between the town centre and the waterfront.
What would it look like?
The road network
The existing Bullring Roundabout would be removed with a new signalised junction created.
The flyover which takes the A8 above the existing Oak Mall would be brought down to ground level to create easier access into the town centre.
A new cultural centre
This will focus on the acquisition of the Glebe Building, making it wind and watertight and stabilising the internal fabric. Creative Regeneration have carried out surveys on the building and will soon be submitting a planning application and listed building consent applications to Inverclyde Council, focusing on the existing shell of the building.
new culture centre/quarter
How much will it cost?
The total project cost is £21.589m.
The Levelling Up bid from Inverclyde Council has been awarded £19.589m from the UK Government towards the project with in-kind support from the Oak Mall allowing asset/land transfers to support the delivery of the project and from Inverclyde Council.