Agenda item
ALDERSHOT TOWN CENTRE STRATEGY
To consider the Head of Economy, Planning and Strategic Housing’s Report No. EPSH1957 (copy attached) which sets out the seven strands of the Aldershot Town Centre Strategy and provides details on the current position and next steps. The Board are asked to consider three elements of the evidence base and their implications for the Town Centre Strategy. The elements are:
· Civic Society vision document
· Work on independent business uses and consultation carried out by the Rushmoor Leadership group
· Parking study
Minutes:
The
Board received the Head of Economy, Planning and Strategic Housing’s Report No.
EPSH1957 which set out the seven strands of the Aldershot Town Centre Strategy and
provided details on the current position and next steps. The Board considered three elements of the
evidence base and their implications for the Strategy which were: the Aldershot
Civic Society Town Centre Vision; ideas from the Rushmoor Leadership project
group to attract and grow independent business uses; and, the Aldershot Parking
Study.
The
Council had been working with the Aldershot Civic Society and the Aldershot
Task Force to shape a longer-term town centre strategy and to enable
consultation and engagement with the wider community, including residents and
other stakeholders. As a result of the
engagement, the Aldershot Civic Society had drafted a community-led ‘Town
Centre Vision’ based around ten key themes:
· Communicating
Aldershot – supporting the physical
transformation and looking forward to the future, ideas included a centrally
located information centre, a website and phone app.
· Future
Development – providing policy
compliant quality affordable housing contributing positively to existing
Victorian heritage.
· Public Realm
– a welcoming, accessible and high quality town centre which was easy to move around.
· Feeling Safe
– a town centre with good lighting
and alternatives to CCTV to address anti-social behaviour.
· Transport,
access and movement – promoting
active use of the town centre, ideas included free short-term parking, removal
of street clutter and increased cycle provision.
· Entertainment,
events and activities – creating a
sense of pride and ownership and increasing footfall and prosperity of
businesses in the town.
· Facilities
and services in town – ideas included
moving the library to a town centre location and providing a modern,
interactive and family-friendly museum.
· Retail,
restaurants and cafes – providing a
unique and independent retail offer and variety of high-quality cafes.
· Incentives
for new businesses – establishing a
pathway from ‘pop-up’ to permanent to allow Aldershot to ‘grow its own’.
·
Transition period – drawing up a communications strategy to bring people along on the journey
of transformation.
The
Board discussed the Aldershot Civic Society’s Town Centre Vision and key themes
and broadly agreed with the themes but also suggested some additional areas
which could be included. The Board was
advised that the Aldershot Civic Society information was just one piece of work
looking at town centre uses and potential future uses
which would be considered as part of the strategic development process. A piece of work had been commissioned to look
specifically at future uses for the town centre and that work was expected to
be completed by February/March 2020.
Hannah
Shuttler, Ally Murdoch and Emma Lamb, Rushmoor officers participating in the
Rushmoor Leadership Programme, presented the outcomes from the work they had
carried out, looking at how the vibrancy of the town centre could be developed
by attracting and growing independent business uses. The project had three stages: creating a
knowledge baseline; evaluating potential opportunities; and, developing ideas
to form recommendations. The Group
identified a number of ideas and developed
recommendations for eleven projects. Of
those eleven projects, three were identified as contributing to the transition
plan in the short-medium term and the remaining eight could be evaluated alongside
the other initiatives as part of the long-term development of the
Strategy.
The
three projects identified as contributing to the transition plan were:
·
Engagement with
young people – including art student displays on hoardings, youth engagement project
with Farnborough 6th Form College and construction opportunities linked to
Aldershot College
·
Repair Café,
focussing on armed forces veterans
·
West End Centre –
continuing work already underway to improve the cultural offer
The
eight projects identified for evaluation as part of the long-term Strategy
development were:
·
Escape Room
Adventure Centre
·
Climbing Centre
·
Soft Play
·
Indoor
Trampolining
·
Little Street
·
Splash Area
·
Visual Gaming
Centre
·
Relocation of Army
Careers Office to the town centre
The
Group had identified leisure provision opportunities and operators that were
interested in locating in Aldershot.
The
Board discussed the proposals and welcomed the work of the Leadership Group and
in particular the engagement with young people. There was support for the three projects
contributing to the transition plan and for further evaluation of the eight
projects as the Aldershot Town Centre Strategy was developed.
The
Board received a copy of the Aldershot Parking Study which had been carried out
in June 2019. The study assessed the
current off and on street parking situation, identified changes in use and
demand, assessed future demand in the light of the regeneration projects and
looked at good practice elsewhere. The
conclusion of the study was that there would be sufficient
car park capacity in the town centre to accommodate planned growth to
2024. It was proposed that a more
strategic use of car parks and partnership working with the Wellington Centre
and Westgate could improve the town centre offer for off-street parking. The study also proposed that a strategic
review of on-street parking would identify some opportunities. Other opportunities identified included
improved public transport and cycling facilities and the introduction of car
sharing schemes.
The
Board discussed the outcomes from the Aldershot Parking Study and were advised
that a transport/parking stakeholders’ group would be established to address
some of the issues highlighted in the study.
All
of the evidence would be brought together and it was
the intention that the Aldershot Town Centre Strategy would be available in
draft form in March 2020.
Action to be taken |
By whom |
When |
Report the draft Aldershot Town Centre Strategy to the 25th March
Board meeting |
Tim Mills |
17th March 2020 |
Supporting documents:
- Item 2 - Aldershot TC Strategy Report, item 19. PDF 125 KB
- Item 2 - Appendix 1 Draft TC Vision, item 19. PDF 2 MB
- Item 2 - Appendix 2 ATC Leadership project report, item 19. PDF 545 KB
- Item 2 - Appendix 3 Aldershot Parking Study Report, item 19. PDF 22 MB