Thursday, December 19, 2019

News: Rotherham Council's proposals to brighten town centre streets

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Improving the layout for street markets, more parking spaces, upgrading tired surfaces, new "pop up" features, upgrading street furniture and feature lighting are all included in new proposals to improve key streets in Rotherham town centre.

A key plank of the town centre masterplan, the proposals are designed to improve the town's open spaces on Bridgegate, Howard Street and Effingham Street by improving lines of sight and giving a more bright, modern feel to the areas. More on-street parking is also proposed for College Street.

Following consultation, the designs from  PWP Design consultants are going before the Council's cabinet for approval next week.

A report to the cabinet explains that the works are set to be funded from the £17m pot that the Council set aside to support capital investments in the town centre. Central funding could also come from the Government's Future High Streets Fund and Transforming Cities Fund.

A total cost for the improvements has not been made public as the works will need to go out to tender.

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The draft states that the key design principles include:

• Reducing clutter and creating more flexible, accessible spaces.
• Improving infrastructure and functionality for the street markets.
• Simplifying the paving and introducing high quality, modern furniture and lighting.
• Introducing a wider range of seating opportunities.
• Creating opportunities for technology, such as Wifi and phone charging.
• Opening up views of the Minster.
• Adding a new layer of interest through pop up features and catenary lighting. These help with wayfinding, branding and introduce opportunities for art, performance, play and planting.

On Bridgegate, the seating area and planters outside the former Rhinoceros pub are set to be removed, "decluttering" the street, opening up views of the Minster and addressing issues of antisocial behaviour.

For Howard Street, between the bus station and the markets, the design aims to reduce clutter, highlight the Old Town Hall and improve its ability to accommodate market stalls.

Effingham Street improvements all support the space for market stalls that are used during the popular street markets.

Extending short stay parking along College Street towards All Saints Square is also proposed.

The report states that "Phase 1 Streets offer the opportunity to; create a cohesive, modern, high quality public realm that can be rolled out throughout the town centre; improve the visitor experience, access and increase activity, events and footfall to support local businesses; improve connections to key destinations such as Forge Island, Rotherham Market, Rotherham Interchange and the Minster."

Images: PWP / RMBC

4 comments:

royherbert December 19, 2019 at 1:26 PM  

Too little too late unfortunately the forge island development has taken too long to materialise the amount of empty shops is demoralising this idea was mooted a few years ago and all these initiatives came to Nada a few bits of furniture here and there the streets are still full of rubbish they spout these ideas spend the money on granduoise ideas and six months later forgotten, sorry RMBC seen it all before perhaps the election result will make a difference?

Bunnyman December 19, 2019 at 5:41 PM  

They were supposed to demolish the burnt out buildings on corporation street before enything else was done and this was agreed in September but nothings happening.

Tom,  December 19, 2019 at 6:26 PM  

Not quite. The council planners have made it a condition that if the buildings on corporation street aren't demolished by the private sector owner in a year then the planning permission for the hotel to replace them is no longer granted.

Anonymous,  December 24, 2019 at 6:21 PM  

who wants to come to rotherham and spend a night in a hotel who wants to come to rotherham and spend pounds to park up when rotherham is a total shithole its dead the council has made sure of that nobody wants to come here

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