To be considered for the project there was a requirement for us to demonstrable experience, knowledge, and expertise in delivering successful public realm design schemes with a strong emphasis on sustainable transport modes, particularly cycling and walking.
One of the aims of the project was to facilitate and support communities identify and evidence investment opportunities to create more liveable streets to enable walking, cycling and other sustainable travel choices. The approach focused on the ambition to reduce unnecessary through traffic, design improvements along the High Street and surrounding roads, develop secondary routes to destinations within the neighbourhoods and fix the smaller, one-off issues.
We were required to provide a multi-disciplinary team that comprised of specialists in urban design, highways, landscape, sustainability, and lighting, that had local knowledge of Hadleigh town and surrounding Babergh district, to provide the design services.
In addition to the multi-disciplinary team, we were required to provide specialist stakeholder engagement resource to conduct a comprehensive consultation across the town due to the support necessary to attract funding, as well as the client’s aspirations for co-design through workshops.
We undertook a robust public consultation, which included engagement with residents, businesses, and visitors to understand views on our proposals, which were broken down into individual proposals, as well as collectively as a regeneration scheme. We used our consultation hub to provide details on proposals, as well as providing the opportunity for stakeholders to suggest ideas by dropping pins and comments on a map of the town. This enabled our team to carry out needs analysis.
The findings from the needs analysis were used to develop a series of interventions. A co-design approach was employed, involving local artists, architects, and community groups. The key interventions used to create the regeneration proposal are summarised below.
The reallocation of roadspace by widening the footways along the High Street, reducing the carriageway width. This required the road to become one-way to traffic, which wasn’t considered an issue due to a parallel road running directly to the north of the High Street.
The proposed layout of the central High Street area enabled traffic and cyclists to integrate safely, which was supported by a 20mph speed limit. To the east and west of the core High Street area, the proposal was to introduce a segregated cycle lane to provide protection from traffic and avoid cyclists sharing the footway with pedestrians. Additional secure cycle parking was also proposed.
The proposal included a number of green spaces, such as planters, trees, and seating area to create a more inviting environment that would encourage pedestrians to stay longer in the town centre. This was supported by proposals to introduce Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in nearby residential areas.
A High Street regeneration concept design was developed that included the key interventions described above. This was supported by the majority of stakeholders including residents and businesses along the High Street.
