Following our masterplan for Newbury town centre, West Berkshire commissioned HemingwayDesign to prepare a Vision, Strategy and Delivery Plan for both Hungerford and Thatcham town centres. This was a single commission, working closely with the Town Councils, Neighbourhood Plan teams, local businesses, community groups and residents to deliver locally-led action plans.
Around 2,000 people were involved in the engagement exercise, through the online survey, town walkabouts, and community workshops giving us a clear picture of local concerns and priorities. Separate workshops were held with students from local sixth form colleges to provide an opportunity for young people in the town to express their views.
Both Hungerford and Thatcham wanted to address the impact of through traffic and improve conditions for visitors and local residents. The strategies reduced the barriers to walking and
cycling, reducing traffic speeds, improving air quality and creating stronger connections between the town centre and the residential areas. Car parking strategies identified ways to remove cars from priority pedestrian areas and encourage parking on the edge of the town centre, with improved pedestrian routes and wayfinding. This enabled the towns to increase space for markets and events, provide more seating and spill-out space for cafés and restaurants, provide more green space and planting and create more sociable and welcoming town centres.
The strategies enhance the ‘civic’ quality of the town centres, creating focal spaces for residents. In Hungerford the strategy puts the Town Hall at the centre of the town, emphasises historic buildings and improves arrival by all modes of transport.
The strategies focused on measures to support local independent businesses, to create pop-up and meanwhile activities, and to create distinctive identities for individual streets. They also recognised the need to bring a diverse range of community and other uses into the town centres to fill vacant units. The Delivery Plans identified ways to improve health, community and library facilities in the town centres, with options to fill existing vacant units, make more productive use of Hungerford Town Hall or to create a much needed sports, youth and community health hub for Thatcham, addressing the social needs created by existing and proposed housing growth.
The full reports can be read here.
