Letter: Big, Bold Decisions Needed for Urban Renewal

Published on: 16 Dec, 2023
Updated on: 17 Dec, 2023

Friary Quarter North Street

From: James Gross

town centre resident and Founder of Urban Place Lab Limited

In response to: Without Urban Renewal the Town Will Fail

Some interesting comment in John Rigg’s opinion piece, but the devil as they say, is in the detail.

Urban renewal undoubtedly requires the bringing forward of brownfield land, but not at any cost.

The rejected North Street scheme (ie the first version proposed by St Edward) was simply too tall for the town. Not really the fault of the developer but, in reality, the Local Plan capacity work that preceded it and which set an overly ambitious housing target for this site and others.

Had more considered work been undertaken at the preliminary stage, then the former 13/14 storey heights proposed could have been assessed and mitigated against with better (lower) distribution across the site, as the developers have now done.

As a local design practice, we met with the Conservative leadership to discuss brownfield infill and renewal in the town in late 2016, only to be told by the then leader, “We’ve looked at urban capacity in the town centre and its full!”

Manifestly, opportunities for well-considered urban development in sustainable locations still exist in the town. Spurred on by the change of the Lib Dem leadership under Caroline Reeves in 2018, we undertook work on a number of “hidden” sites on a pro-bono basis. But no council administration of any political colour (including R4GV) has shown the capacity or courage to take these forward to date.

We fully support John Rigg’s aspiration for urban renewal and careful infill in the town, but the plans and strategies produced under several administrations have proven to be little more than expensive architectural wallpaper.

A strategy needs to develop that examines sites in multiple ownership, considers neglected space (even if it’s green), looks at wasted road space and car parks and builds an integrated economic approach that takes the big, bold decisions to decant uses out of the town centre that could work elsewhere, and bring in housing at more urban densities, creating a thriving and “liveable” town centre.

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