Work to transform a Bolton retail park into a green skills centre could begin this summer, following the release of redevelopment plans
The Greenworks site is located on Trinity Retail Park just off the A666 (St Peter’s Way). The Bolton at Home project is delivered in partnership with Bolton charity Urban Outreach.
The Bolton green skills centre will provide essential training on green technology for retrofit to businesses across the Greater Manchester region. This will contribute to the overall energy efficiency of the company and improve its chances of getting low carbon contracts.
Once up and running, the Bolton green skills centre will also offer workspaces, meeting rooms and training centres for low carbon SMEs. It hopes to support low carbon companies in their infancy to grow and achieve success.
The Bolton facility aims to push for a sustainable net-zero carbon future whilst providing essential support and learning for the low carbon construction and energy sectors.
Planning proposals
The planning application submitted to Bolton Council outlines the initial work to fit out classrooms, training areas, work benches and offices inside the main Greenworks learning unit. Two floors of storage space will be allocated to Urban Outreach’s food bank with additional floorspace for a modern waiting room, reception and office facilities for the charity.
The Greenworks exterior will also be improved. For example, planning covers a new featured entrance to the Greenworks building and a living wall made up of plants.
The second phase of planning will consider sustainability options such as:
- solar panels
- wind turbines
- rainwater harvesting
- electric vehicle charging sites
- a modular training house for tradespeople
Helping the local community
Urban Outreach invested in Greenworks last year and so also wants to use the Bolton green skills centre for food storage and distribution. This will include growing food, food recycling and hydroponics – all part of its mission to reduce food poverty in Bolton.
As a not-for-profit enterprise, any surplus will be reinvested back into local community such as helping people into employment.
Noel Sharpe, deputy group chief executive officer at Bolton at Home and Chair of the Bolton Vision Partnership’s Economic Prosperity Group, made the following comments:
“Retrofitting houses is one of the major challenges we face if Bolton is to become carbon neutral.
“Green technologies such as heat pumps, solar panels and rainwater harvesting are all available in the market, however there is a large skills gap in the number of people and businesses locally who are able to fit, maintain and repair them.
“Once open, businesses across Bolton and the North West will be able to benefit from the opportunities on site, from upskilling their staff in low carbon technologies, through to meeting like-minded companies and using the learning space on offer.”
