Plans to repair and renovate Hepworth’s Arcade will now move forward after Hull City Council’s Cabinet approved the project.

The decision was made today (Monday 27 March) and the scheme will now move on to the next stage, including building and heritage surveys.

The project has been made possible after Cabinet agreed to release funds from the council’s Capital Programme.

The overall cost is estimated at around £1.4m, which will be partly funded by a grant from Historic England.

The project will deliver essential repairs to the historic shopping parade, addressing damp and other maintenance work, such as renovating the promenade flooring and repairing internal stonework in keeping with its heritage. It will also be fully redecorated.

This will improve the quality of the retail units to attract new businesses in a bid to fill empty units.

In turn, it will bring further local jobs, increase the diversity of high-quality retail available and boost footfall in the area.

One-to-one communication with existing tenants will continue for some time and more formal engagement will take place once plans formalise.