Praise for outgoing chair of St Helens Town Deal Board

Article date: October 5th 2023

John Tabern has led the board since it first launched back in 2020 and has overseen the huge investment in St Helens Borough, which is already helping to transform the town and with many more Town Deal projects in motion.   

He announced he would be stepping down at an Annual General Meeting of the Board on Friday, which took place at the World of Glass - the first Town Deal project to have been completed with a complete renovation of the museum with new exhibits that have proved incredibly popular with visitors since it was reimagined.  

Work continues on other projects that include St Helens town centre regeneration and living, Glass Futures Phase 2, digital infrastructure and transport connectivity improvements across St Helens town centre, Health Innovation Hub, Youth Hub and Cannington Shaw No 7 Bottle Shop.   

The last of those projects is one close to John's heart as he is part of the Cannington Shaw Preservation Trust CIC who will turn the former Cannington Shaw site into a multi-functional community asset. In August this year the society were successful in gaining £250,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will support heritage building restoration training through a skills academy for young people.   

Speaking of his time on the board John said: "It has been an immense honour and privilege for me to have been Chairman for the last three and half years. I have been frequently asked why I given my time free for what has been a demanding and enormous task and the answer is easy, because I love my town, simple as that. I would like to thank all of the marvellously talented individuals I have worked with during that period and look forward to seeing the fruits of our endeavours brought into reality as the Towns Fund projects are delivered."

The process to appoint a new chair for the St Helens Town Deal Board will now start, led by St Helens Borough Council.   

Praising the work John has done in the last three years Councillor David Baines, Leader of St Helens Borough Council, said: "John has been a dedicated chair and his leadership has helped us to be one of the biggest benefactors from the Town Deal Fund, one of only a few in the region to have been given the full £25 million allocation for all of our submitted projects. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank John for his work. 

"I'm sure he will continue to support the work of the board as a retained member and he will of course continue to lead the Cannington Shaw project which I am sure will be a success."