Batley Blueprint

The Batley Blueprint is all about revitalising the town centre, making it more vibrant and better connected, and making sure public spaces are welcoming for everyone who lives, works or visits the town centre.

We want to celebrate the town's rich heritage, and make it a destination for people to meet, socialise and explore the great businesses in the heart of Batley.

Shaped by the feedback of residents and businesses, together with detailed traffic modelling, the designs meet local needs and create a safer, more accessible and welcoming town centre.

How the designs have evolved and what happens now

The final designs, approved by Kirklees Council in September 2025, are the culmination of more than three years of consultation and engagement with the Batley community and businesses.

Across 2021 and 2022 two consultations took place with the Batley community to form the Batley Blueprint and identify priority projects. The 'Streets for People' consultation gathered inputs on changes that could be made to improve air quality, safety, cycling, walking and public transport in Batley to make the town centre better for people. The 'Our Town Centre' consultation asked local people what they thought of Batley town centre then, and what they'd like to see in the future.

As a result of these consultations, the regeneration of Batley town centre was identified as a priority project and concept designs were created to secure funding from UK government in 2023.

In January and February 2025, new concept designs for the town centre were shared with the Batley community and businesses to gather feedback on design details. This has been integrated into developed designs which we revealed in September.

The visuals shared in September show the progression of the design from our last engagement in January and February 2025 and are the closest look yet at what the designs might deliver.

However, they are artists' impressions and details are subject to change. This includes things like materials such as paving, planters, plants and trees, bollards, signage, lighting, wayfinding and artwork.

How decisions have been made

We have undertaken surveys in the process of creating the designs for the town centre.

Some of these include:

  • Pedestrian and traffic counts which have been used to inform the concept design
  • Utilities/services surveys which will inform the detailed design and construction work
  • Ecology survey
  • Tree survey
  • Archaeology desk based assessment
  • UXO desk based and detailed assessment which shows medium risk at Well Lane/Commercial Street middle junction
  • Extensive traffic modelling has been carried out

Better for walking and cycling
Better for transport
A family-friendly town centre
A great place to socialise
A safe and welcoming town centre
Public spaces everyone can enjoy

We're proud to have secured £12 million of funding for Batley from the government. The funding has come from what was previously the Levelling-Up Fund which is an investment fund for infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.

This money has been allocated to Batley from central government. It is to be spent on regenerating the town centre, and cannot be redistributed anywhere else by the council.

The funding will be complemented by about £2.5 million from Kirklees Council's Local Centres funding and from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

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