Ossett Shop Improvement Grant Scheme

Ossett is a friendly and welcoming historic market town that is a unique home to a diverse selection of businesses. Ossett provides visitors and residents a true community experience that is enhanced by the areas long standing heritage and new independent businesses alike. Ossett's market provides visitors with a shopping experience in a traditional Yorkshire town that is steeped in hundreds of years of local heritage.

The Council’s Town Centre Regeneration Capital Programme includes a range of projects aiming to invest in town centre locations to maintain their vibrancy and encourage economic wellbeing in these places.

This page provides information on the shop improvement grant scheme that will help Ossett Town Centre continue to thrive as a place of independent, innovative businesses, bringing diversity, and creative thinking to the heart of Ossett.

Our leaflet provides an overview of this project, and you can check our red line boundary to see if you're eligible.

• Ossett Red Line Boundary

What are we trying to achieve?

We’re excited to have an opportunity to support local town centre businesses with financial boosts to refresh shop fronts, to attract new customers and welcome your loyal, local clientele.

This is one part of our wider Towns Centre Regeneration plans which will help Wakefield District thrive as a vibrant place to live, work and play.
Ossett is an investment priority for the Council. We want to champion Ossett to be a visitor destination that outshines others out of District town centres, improved shop frontages will ensure the town sustainably meets customer needs.
Increasing town centre vibrancy will persuade residents to reduce long car journeys to other places, making Ossett a safer and healthier place.
Improved shops will help business owners grow their workforces, generating employment opportunities for local people.

What can I apply for?

To help applicants the following framework has been developed.

• Ossett Shop Front Guide
• focus on the existing external envelope – we are looking for applications that relate to external improvements that create a traditional shop frontage in keeping with the conservation area
• settle on a colour scheme
  • we will favour heritage colours as Ossett is a conservation area, this will also ensure continuity through the town while maintaining individuality for each business.
• assess your shop front
  • we will only consider approaches using traditional or approved materials
• pay particular attention to layout
  • we are keen to ensure a continuous, clean frontage, applicants may need to consider how they will complement their immediate neighbours
• to complement the shop frontage
  • we can support improvements to external lighting, the installation of canopies and encourage the installation of gantry signage to create a warm welcome for your customers
  • again, the design and colour scheme should complement wider improvements and contribute to the overall traditional feel of the town centre

What else should I know?

Grants will be paid on evidence of defrayment, which means you will need to have the works completed and demonstrate you have paid for them yourself before funds are released.

Officers will be available to support you throughout the application process. We'll be visiting every eligible property to talk through the scheme and how, together, we can make the Ossett of tomorrow.