Blog: Safer Greener Streets Public Consultation

PLACE architects were a part of the team delivering the recently completed feasibility study for the Safer Greener Streets project which was awarded £100,000 from the Town Vitality Fund. 

Safer Greener Streets is the working name of the initiative to enhance and enrich the town centre of Launceston with design for the public realm. The potential for rejuvenation encompasses facilities, infrastructure, accessibility, routeways, planting, wayfinding, promotion, events, the environment and more.
 

Led by urban designers McGregor Coxall, the design team included consultants specialised in transport- Advance Consulting, and economics- MED Planning. Enable Accessibility provided consultancy on equal access, whilst MDA Consulting presented indicative costings for the strategic vision. Architect Jeremy Chadburn provided conservation advice.PLACE architects led public consultation. We employed the Grounded Theory Research Method, which requires that the researcher acknowledge their own perspective, so that others can identify where this may influence findings. Consequently, anyone who reads the consultation undertaken so far can have a better understanding of the value of the work in its wider context and is empowered to critique, support and/or, most importantly, to further progress it.

We believe the town should serve a diverse community and serve them well. This means people who currently live in Launceston and the surrounding area, those who will in the future, as well as visitors and those passing through. It might be fun if Launceston could also serve people who have not been or will never come to Launceston, in the same way that other places evoke something special for us whether we’ve been there or not. The town should serve those who used to live in Launceston, who have added to its heritage and contributed to what it is today. There may be an opportunity to remember past contributions that have been forgotten or taken for granted. And alongside this more and more we realise that the town must serve the wider environment, animal and bird life, plant life. The geology and geography itself demand to be taken into consideration; although these aspects ‘feedback’ in their own distinctive way- gravity, temperature, weather, light- they certainly do feed back.In our study, the consultation feedback collected, recorded and presented in the report is from people; people engaged in Launceston, who attended community events held here, made a visit to the ‘Drop-in Centre’, came along to a meeting, or responded to a social media post online or an advert in Launceston Life or a Cornish weekly. We found people taking an interest in the town, and with something to say about it- personal or taking a broad view, funny, positive, or downbeat, riffing on the future, nostalgic for the past, idealistic or specific, idiosyncratic at times, at others harmonising around a common theme. Always interesting, and diligently documented.

PLACE architects made Safer Greener Streets recognisable with its own logo, colour scheme (naturally green) and the same friendly faces popping up behind the stall table at events including the Launceston Heritage Weekend (June), MS4N Wildlife Celebration Day, Launceston Show and the Causley Festival (July). Sometimes consultees heard about Safer Greener Streets via word-of-mouth, with members of the public approaching PLACE. Consultants on the design team- specialists with expert insight, knowledge gained on other projects, and practical advice- contributed to the Feasibility Study with their own reports, so do not feature in our consultation report though they will have influenced some of the queries we posed.

We see consultation as a golden thread that starts in the community long before a project has begun and informs the development of likely projects as well as their design. When a project has been built (also a collaborative process) it will be inhabited by those same consultees, perhaps their family, friends, and others, who will be called upon to care and maintain this new intervention, or- if it has not been a success, has not had longevity or been met with popularity or consideration- let it fall into misuse or disrepair.

Ultimately a successful regeneration project is one that has the support of its people, who can live, enjoy, make a success of, and maintain, what is built or installed. It will be inclusive. It will be durable. It will be flexible and offer consistency in changing times. It may be a cultural touchstone or offer something symbolic. It must be practical and improve day to day lives. Supportive of prosperity, community, biodiversity. Sustainable.

There has been criticism in the news this week about the burden on local government resources created by the need to bid for funding. This is the status quo. Launceston will be bidding and the Safer Greener Streets feasibility report including consultation report by PLACE architects offers strong material in support of these bids, which is the means by which investment can be gained into our public realm.