Residents of Banbury are being asked to comment on a vision for the town centre.
Cherwell District Council has enlisted HemingwayDesign to help with engagement and development of its Banbury Vision 2050. Hemingway has already invited young people from local schools and colleges to take part in a workshop and has now made a survey available to the local population.
Cllr Donna Ford (pictured right with Wayne Hemingway), the council’s portfolio holder for regeneration, said: “This is a pivotal moment for the town. We want the people who know Banbury best and use the town centre, whether residents, businesses, or visitors, to get involved. The survey is an opportunity to tell us what they want to see in the town centre in 2050.
“We understand that town centres across the UK are changing and must adapt, and this essential project enables us to get prepared and ahead of the game by setting a direction of travel for Banbury in the coming years.
“That’s why we are asking for everyone to help. The more voices we hear, the better informed we are to create a town centre vision that will unlock Banbury’s immense potential through to 2050.”
She said the decision to acquire and regenerate Castle Quay shopping centre and the recent decision to relocate the council offices there demonstrates its commitment to creating a thriving town centre.
Wayne Hemingway, co-founder of HemingwayDesign, said: “The best and most successful town centres respond to the needs of the people who use them. We started off the engagement with a focus on young people because it is younger generations who are driving the change that is taking place in town centres across the UK.
“It is younger generations who don’t have the same opportunities and disposable incomes to buy homes as generations before them, and who are growing up understanding and facing the consequences of the climate emergency. Listening to their ideas, hopes and aspirations for the future of Banbury town centre and encouraging them to spread the word about Banbury Vision 2050 is vital.”
Visit www.banbury2050.co.uk. Comments can be made until January 15.
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“She said the decision to acquire and regenerate Castle Quay shopping centre and the recent decision to relocate the council offices there demonstrates its commitment to creating a thriving town centre”
The council bought the centre over 6 years ago, in the midst of a national high street retail collapse, and only now are they getting around to their ‘vision’ for it? Although there was no hint back in 2018 that the purchase of CQ was going to be about moving the council offices there. Back then they were saying it was a commercial development that was going to generate £5m a year in income which as far as I know has never materialised.
In fact, as a retail pundit, I’ve repeatedly criticised them for having no vision on what they were going to do with CQ. It appears they only bought it to enable the development of the waterfront project and just expected the shopping centre to miraculously improve as a result with no actual plan for how that would happen. All they have done with the Castle Quay estate is build some new toilets and convert part of an empty unit into an indoor market (whilst failing to support the traditional outdoor Charter Market for years).
So they blew £62m on a failing shopping centre and essentially left it to rot while they focused on the new shiny thing of the waterfront development (that they spent another £62m+ on). Now they’re asking what the ‘vision’ should be, presumably because they still have absolutely no idea themselves.
This isn’t regeneration, it’s flim-flam and hoopla.