2026 will be a big year for Millom where nearly £30 million is being spent on four projects which is hoped will make a big impact on a town some say, until now, has missed out on previous regeneration schemes.
But as Business Crack’s Nigel Thompson has been hearing, the work could highlight Millom as the ideal location for new recruits to two of Cumbria’s biggest employers.
Sport still runs through the veins of the people of Millom, according to one of the town’s biggest flag wavers.
David Savage should know. Born and bred there, he’s charted the changes seen around the area for decades.
Because of where it sits, on a peninsula with Barrow to the south, Sellafield to the north and the Lake District as a backdrop, he says it’s fair comment to say Millom has been a forgotten town when it comes to development and innovation.
But not any more.
“We’re resetting the town on a different direction,” David told me. “Millom is in the middle of everywhere!”
It’s all about perspective according to David and the Millom Town Deal Board team he chairs.
The town is mid-way along Cumbria’s ‘nuclear corridor’ linking two sites where nationally important programmes are being delivered.
And with the national park on the doorstep, the appeal – he says – is obvious.
The only thing that has been missing is money to help create the attractions a community needs.
“It has to be an area people can come home too, where health and wellbeing is part of community-based activities,” David said. “We needed to increase the capacity of the recreation on offer in the area.”
A new four-court sports hall, 15m long four-lane swimming pool, fitness studio and gym based at Millom school is under construction.
Pupils from the school were invited to sign the steelwork installed by Cumbrian-based Thomas Armstrong in a deliberate move to ensure they feel part of the project.
“We need to make sure all our ambassadors feel part of the project so that they can look forward to what’s coming,” David explained.
The pool will open towards the end of next year and will compliment a 3G sports pitch that is already proving popular meaning the town will have a sports village by next Christmas.
And it’s not just sporting facilities that are being created.
Millom, like many places in Cumbria, has disused former banking buildings.
A former NatWest branch which holds a prominent position is being transformed into a place where fledgling businesses can start with the top floor offering a home for creative arts, something David says is often forgotten yet has a strong appeal in this part of Cumbria.
A ‘makers market’ and food and drink will also be on offer when The Old Bank opens later this year.
Two other projects will have spades in the ground this year too.
Referring to its’ historic links to heavy industry the Iron Line, a route along the Hodbarrow coastal lagoon and sea wall which it’s hoped will create ‘an inspiring, accessible, and significant nature-based visitor attraction.’
The development is aimed as providing an important visitor attraction for the town, improving biodiversity and increasing interest in Millom’s history, heritage and natural ecology.
A visitor centre, walking and cycling infrastructure improvements around the RPSB’s reserve, installation of artwork and the creation of 60 car parking spaces are included in the plans which go before council planners in February.
The ‘glue of the projects’ according to David is work to improve travel around the town.
A gateway to the town will form the fourth scheme which will provide better cycling and walking routes in and around both Millom and neighbouring Haverigg.
So where has the money – and the will – to create four main projects in just a few years come from?
Millom was one of the smallest places to be invited to bid for a share of the Government’s £3.6 billion Towns Fund in 2019 as part of the so-called Levelling Up agenda.
The money is aimed at providing investment to drive long term economic growth and, in Millom’s case, improve the health of the people who live there.
Millom was successful in gaining £20.6million in November 2022 for projects identified as local priorities but also received £8.7million in match funding from stakeholders including Sellafield, Copeland Community Fund, NDA, CGP books, Millom School and Millom Town Council.
The Millom Town Deal projects are part of a wider £440 million regeneration programme being delivered by Cumberland Council.
David says even the pandemic and a reorganisation of local government did not slow progress down.
“We’ve worked to build trust and confidence in what we’ve set out to do and also create landscapes for everyone,” he said.
As a proud grandfather of four granddaughters, being able to take them for a swim in the new pool will, he says, ‘be priceless.’
The decision to invite 200 pupils to become ambassadors of the Town Deal was deliberate to encourage interest in projects which together could make a lasting impression for generations.
David hopes the work will send a signal that far from being at the end of a remote part of Cumbria, Millom is in fact at the middle of a growing part of the North West region.
“We’re now at the delivery stage and with a strong community spirit here people can see improvements taking shape,” David said.
