Bishopbriggs Public Realm Plan –Bishopbriggs Town Centre Strategy and City Deal delivery
Responsible Officer:
David Gear, Place & Business Development Manager
Publication:
This Technical Note will be published on the Council’s website following circulation to Member. Its contents may be disclosed or shared out with the Council.
Section
The purpose of this Technical Note is to update Elected Members on work associated with the Bishopbriggs Town Centre Public Realm Plan (the plan) that is underway as part of the Council’s City Deal Project.
Following on from engagement undertaken to inform the objectives and actions of the approved Bishopbriggs Town Centre Strategy 2018 which relate to the improvement of the town centre environment, Officers procured specialist design consultants at the start of the year to assist in the development of a public realm plan. The ultimate aim of the plan is to capture a range of town centre improvements at concept design level and identify an agreed list of projects to then test and develop in more detail and deliver over time through various routes (including for example the Council’s City Deal project).
The plan will show improvements which will include: new civic space; improved existing civic, social and informal play spaces; and improvements to streets and connections in and around the town centre.
The consultants have undertaken site visits and a range of analysis of the Town Centre. This analysis has enabled them to understand the constraints and opportunities within the town centre environment and suggest priorities for improvement. The priorities and analysis will be used to inform initial discussions with local people and stakeholders over the next two months. This initial engagement work will help inform the design process in creating feasible public realm solutions to discuss further with local people and stakeholders in late summer/ autumn 2021.
One-to-one targeted consultations with key stakeholders (including Morrisons, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Network Rail and St Matthews Church) are underway, with public engagement on initial public realm concepts expected to commence in June 2021 for a four-week period. A subsequent period of engagement and consultation on the agreed priorities for improvements to the public realm in the town centre is expected to take place in late summer/autumn 2021.
The initial public engagement will be launched this month through a period of promotion over social media and the Council website.
The communications materials used during the various phases of engagement will have to present complex information to a non-technical audience and careful thought will be given to ensuring that communications are designed to be appropriate for the specific audience. All materials will be available on an engagement webpage on the Council website with some information available to view in designated public locations.
The initial engagement work which will take place over May and June will be supported by plans and visual information showing physical constraints, barriers and opportunities within the town centre. These will help generate comments and inputs as to how people use the town centre and specific issues any improvements should try to overcome. Some sketched concepts showing how key areas in the town centre could look will also be provided, again this will help aim conversations and input from local people and stakeholders.
It should be noted in the initial engagement stage, Officers are not presenting any fixed design solutions. The communication materials will be used purely to aid discussion, gather information and determine the outcomes that town centre users and stakeholders expect any changes to the town centre environment to deliver. At the next stage of engagement, proposed designs which aim to deliver these outcomes will be provided in 2D plan form to a concept level of design. These will be consulted upon with the view to finalise the public realm project and an agreed list of projects.
Updates on the project, including outcomes of the consultations and recommended solutions will be included in a future report to on the City Deal project to a meeting of Council or the Place, Neighbourhood & Corporate Assets Committee.
