'We were so lucky to have Wolverton's Agora centre'

A fan of Wolverton's Agora centre has been remembering its finest days, as the site is prepared for a regeneration project.

Councillors heard this week that work could start on the site of the demolished centre in two months' time.

The cost of the project has more than doubled since it was agreed in 2021.

Linda Kincaid has memories of the Agora as "constantly a buzzing place".

Looking at the wall of graffiti-covered green boards that now runs the length of the site, Linda Kincaid can see in her mind's eye the red-brick building with glass doors that used to be a magnet for young people from miles around.

They would be waiting outside for the skating rink to open.

"This was a thriving, happening sort-of place," said Linda, "it was somewhere I would go every night and meet people and skate.

"I was one of the middling skaters, but for the people that were great skaters, there'd be speed skating going on all the time, and lights and music."

She added that it was "everyone's dream to get into the bar".

"Most of us were too young, but we'd do what we could to get in there."

In later years, Linda's mother had a stall at the market on the site: "She would have a little lock-up down the side, lots of people did, and we'd go down in the morning and get it all out and everyone would come from all over Milton Keynes and buy stuff."

Over time, the skating rink closed and the shops went too.

In 2021, plans for housing and retail on the site were approved, and the buildings were demolished in 2023.

Linda said: "I was very sad when it got knocked down - in fact, my mum had died a few months before and I was kind-of glad she hadn't seen it, really.

"I am aware there are some people in Wolverton that were glad to see it go because, to them, it was a blight on the landscape [but] they didn't have the memories that my age group did."

Since then, very little has happened, but a council cabinet meeting on Tuesday agreed to get things moving by approving a revised costing of £76.8m and preparing to borrow up to £59.7m, a £25.9m increase on the previous estimate.

Councillors heard that, once the decision has been confirmed by the full council, work could start in two months.

For people who run businesses nearby, like Karen Parisi, who owns a hardware store, the start of the work cannot come soon enough.

She said the demolition site had "blocked off our entry points from the square, so people have to go all the way around so they forget about us".

She added that several businesses had disappeared and "we do need to have this [new development] and to keep this town alive before it dies completely".

Baris Danirt runs a coffee shop opposite the site and said: "It affects me and my neighbours - they are not happy to see everyday like this.

"At the moment, it's just a mess."

The development includes a block of 29 houses for the over-50s, which the council had been planning to lease to a developer, but has now decided to take on itself to get the project moving.

There will be 115 homes alongside retail units. The project could be complete by 2028 and the site will look very different, but, for some people, it will still evoke memories of those Agora days.

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