| Local people living in the Rushden area will help to shape a new vision for the town centre as the future regeneration of the town takes a major step forward. The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment has been asked by East Northamptonshire Council to carry out an in depth look at the options for the regeneration of the town centre, using its Enquiry By Design public consultation process. The Enquiry by Design process has been tried and tested in a number of towns and communities, including Lincoln and Coalville, and is nationally recognised as an effective means of getting local communities involved. The Prince’s Foundation will use this process during February to bring together people, organisations and businesses with an interest in Rushden to work on a vision for the town centre. The process began with a scoping day on 4 February with representatives from businesses and key local organisations from the Rushden area. This will be followed by a 3 day workshop from 24 – 26 February to include public sessions to ensure that the views of local people are actively taken into account. Then following all this work, The Prince’s Foundation will draw up a report for the council which sets out a vision of what people want the town centre to look like in the future, including a detailed plan with specific proposals for key sites and a strategy for delivering it. Public meeting sessions will be held at Alfred Street Junior School, Alfred Street Rushden on: Wednesday 24 February – 6.30pm Presentation and Questions & Answers Friday 26 February – 6.30pm Presentation & chance to give your views People living in the Rushden area are invited to come along, hear about the options for the town centre and get involved at one of these sessions. For those who can’t make either sessions there will be opportunities later to influence the detailed plans when these are developed at a later stage. There will also be a survey on the town centre included in the 6 February issue of the council’s community newspaper, Nene Valley News. The funding for the Enquiry By Design process is being provided by NEL which works to encourage economic development, inward investment and tourism for Northamptonshire. The wider regeneration of Rushden is being led by East Northamptonshire Council and Rushden Town Council with partnership support and additional funding from North Northants Development Company (NNDC), Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd (NEL) and the Northamptonshire County Council (£1.6m of Growth Funding allocated by NNDC and £0.5m of transport investment from Northamptonshire County Council). | ||
| Author: ENC | Display start: Friday 5 February 2010 end: Friday 5 March 2010 | |