Community groups draw up plans for town’s future (From Swindon Advertiser)

Community groups draw up plans for town’s future

3:15pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Local

COMMUNITY leaders had the chance last night to sketch out their ideas for a masterplan to guide the development of the town centre over the next 20 years.

Forward Swindon, the town’s economic regeneration firm, held an invitation-only design event at Steam Museum, in Kemble Drive, where guests could draw how they want to see the area change.

Architects and masterplanners Allies and Morrison have been commissioned to help people, and then collate the best ideas in a professional draft masterplan, which will go out to full public consultation.

The Planning Swindon Together process, funded by the Homes And Communities Agency and backed by Swindon Council, is expected to lead to an adopted materplan which will guide planning decisions.

Forward Swindon invited between 120 to 140 representatives of community groups to last night’s design event.

After presentations from Ian Piper, the chief executive of Forward Swindon, and Helen Hayes, the director of Allies and Morrison, the guests were split up into smaller groups.

Each group took turns to discuss different planning aspects, such as retail, the environment and infrastructure, and their ideas were drawn up on iPads. Afterwards, all the ideas were collated and presented back to the gathering.

Business leaders have been invited to an identical design event at Swindon Town FC on Tuesday, February 7. Both workshops will culminate in a final feedback session on March 7, after which a draft masterplan will go out to public consultation.