I have to confess I am slowly being won over by Warrington’s new town centre developments.

It’s not that long ago when I was truly appalled by the Time Square car park. I thought it was too big and too garish for a town such as ours but I have mellowed as the rest of the site has taken shape.

For what it’s worth, I still think the gold hexagonal cladding is a bit of 1970s naffness but as the cinema, council offices and other buildings have emerged, it certainly looks less intrusive.

So I was intrigued when I read about the council’s new ‘masterplan’ for the town centre.

The masterplan includes residential development totalling more than 8,000 homes, transport, business, culture, circular parklands, the high street and Port Warrington.

And one of the proposals I can get behind are ambitions to ‘rediscover’ the Mersey, along with an ‘illuminated river’ project.

But it’s the focus on town centre homes I want to concentrate on.

There’s no doubt our town centre ‘offer’ is changing, along with every other town, with retailers struggling to attract customers in the face of out-of-town shopping centres and on-line sales.

And council leader Cllr Russ Bowden looks to be fully on board with this when he said: “In particular, it (the masterplan) signals our ambition to change the nature of our town centre.”

So expect more social and entertainment developments, but also much more town centre residential schemes as Cllr Bowden emphasised these will play a ‘significant role in helping the borough meet its housing targets set out in the emerging local plan’.

For the record, Warrington’s target is to build 24,000 new homes over the next two decades.

Happily for those people living south of the river, Cllr Bowden said it is ‘right’ for the council to look to regenerate brownfield sites in the town centre, rather than green belt and green field land, which he said are used as a ‘last resort’.

To be honest, as someone who lives in the west of the town, those words have a bit of a hollow ring given the amount of development that’s taken place – think Chapelford, Gemini, Omega. There’s barely a blade of grass to be seen, unlike Appleton.

But let’s not be bitter and get back to the town centre.

It very much looks like the aim to build 8,000 homes is well under way.

The two new apartment blocks under construction near Central Station are pretty hard to miss, while developers Torus are cracking on with the residential block on the old Kwik Save site.

But get set for even more.

Developer City Centre projects has unveiled plans for a £15m, nine-storey, luxury apartment block on Mersey Street.

If approved, it would be Warrington town centre’s tallest residential scheme – (Peninsula House is taller with, I think, 12 storeys).

The new town centre block aims to deliver 80 apartments and what the developer believes is Warrington’s first roof garden. The building would also house two ground floor commercial units and four car parking spaces. And in an interesting concept, further car parking would be provided next door at the Time Square car park.

Mike Gore, director at architects Falconer Chester Hall, said: “At nine storeys it would be the tallest residential block in Warrington [no it’s not], and aim to match the scale and massing of the new buildings being developed around it.

“The proposed scale isn’t just efficient and appropriate, it’s a statement of Warrington’s ambition.”

That’s what I like to see, a bit of ambition. I say go for it.

I just hope that by the time it’s built, both the Warrington Western Link and the Slutchers Lane link have been built otherwise the residents will have a spectacular view of Bridge Foot traffic jams from their luxury rooftop garden.