Town centre public realm improvements as part of a coordinated regeneration strategy

As part of the overall town expansion and town centre regeneration plan, the Borough Council of Wellingborough commissioned Matrix Partnership to undertake a suite of supporting studies that included a Public Realm Improvement Strategy and a Materials Palette guide for public roads and spaces throughout the existing town centre.

In order to gain a fully informed understanding of the workings of the town centre and the issues affecting it, the study included in the first instance a comprehensive assessment of the town centre.  This was undertaken under a broad range of relevant topic headings that included such issues as parking, bus circulation, taxi and service access, pedestrian movement and the like.

To address and resolve all the various deficiencies and conflicts that existed in and around the town centre, as well as achieve the major urban regeneration aims and public realm improvements, was at times a highly complex procedure that required close dialogue and consultation with stakeholders.  However the Public Realm Improvement Strategy identified a positive way forward that fully coordinated all interests and that paved the way for specific improvement projects within the context of the overall framework.  The new strategy included proposals for traffic and bus circulation around the town centre, a parking strategy, cycle routes, pedestrian and public area improvements including green spaces, new play facilities, a signage strategy, lighting proposals and public art opportunities.

Closely associated with the Public Realm Improvement Strategy was a town centre Materials Palette that sought to improve and coordinate the treatment of public spaces and roads to help create a more functional and attractive setting and which in the first instance led to the reconfiguration of the principal road through the town centre and associated hard landscape works.