As many of you might have noticed by now that there have been several changes on Bangor High Street in the last few weeks.

Bangor City Council is working partnership with Gwynedd Council, the Welsh Government and Bangor First (BID), on a project called ‘Transforming Bangor’.

The funding for this project has been sourced from the Welsh Government ‘Transforming Towns’ grant. This project has focused on the area from Dean Street to the Cathedral square.

This is the first phase of improvement works to the city High Street which have included:

  • Applying vinyls to empty shop frontages to help brighten and improve the look of the High Street
  • All guttering of buildings within the project area have been cleared to ensure water is directed away
  • Repairs and painting to neglected buildings
  • Deep Street Cleaning within the project area
  • The existing tired benches, planters and bicycle racks will be removed and replaced with new ones
  • To encourage a greener City and travel electric bicycle charging stations have been installed at Tan-Y-Fynwent and by the clock.
  • A new EV charging station has also been provided at the Pier car park as well as also bicycle charging station

This part of the High Street has been in decline for many years and is suffering due to a lack of investment, a lack of footfall and empty shops.

The City Council now hope this will be the first step in the long line of improvements that the City Centre requires. They also hope the improvements will attract more businesses and visitor numbers to the city centre.

A spokesperson for Bangor City Council said: “The challenges faced in Bangor are no different to those seen elsewhere – big names such as Debenhams, Top Shop and H&M have all left the High Street. The area has started to show signs of disrepair which is in turn detracting investment by businesses.

“The City Council hopes that the investment from the grant funding will help attract more investment from businesses. We hope that visitor numbers to the City Centre will also improve.

“The City Council see this work as the first phase of a longer transformation of the High Street. It is acknowledged that fundamental change is required to evolve the High Street to cater for the changing spending habits of modern society and this will take time.”

“The public realm is also to have a facelift with new planters, new street furniture and new bike racks. This will also be accompanied by a comprehensive planting scheme to enhance the area. There will be a series of hanging baskets and barrier planters on fences and lampposts to bring some much-needed colour into the space. Additional planting will also be added to some existing planters. Some of the old planters will be moved to other areas of the city.

“The City Council would like to encourage sustainable travel within the city. As part of this project we are investing in 4 bike charging stations. 2 will be located next to Café Hafan in Tan y Fynwent park and 2 will be located down by the pier. In addition to these, we are installing 2 electric vehicle charging points at the pier.

“We are working in partnership with the shopkeepers, the Business Improvement District, Cyngor Gwynedd and other stakeholders to make sure we are targeting the right interventions.

“It is hoped that further funding and investment will be sought to continue to improve the city centre and bring about a fundamental shift in fortune to the area.”