Garden Town partner, Harlow Council, are asking residents to have their say on three potential redevelopment areas in the town centre.
With an arts and cultural quarter already confirmed for Playhouse Square and a Transport Hub and Interchange replacing Harlow Bus Station, the spotlight is now on areas around Stone Cross Square, Post Office Road and West Gate.
Resident input will help shape the information given to potential developers and other interested parties.
The website is open until 5pm on June 9, click here to get involved.
With a thriving town centre connecting to the proposed new Garden Town neighbourhoods, Cllr Michael Hardware, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Strategic Growth, said: “As we all know, the north of the town centre is in serious need of regeneration, but it needs to be the right type of regeneration to give the town centre as a whole the balance it is presently lacking.
“It will complement the other plans in place for the town centre for which around £40 million in funding has already been secured, such as the Playhouse Quarter and the upcoming bus station redevelopment.
“This is all about ensuring that all parts of the town centre are regenerated and that the standard is consistent.”
In line with Harlow Council’s Town Centre masterplan and the Garden Town’s design principles, the brief to developers will focus on:
• Creating an identity: Addressing the current imbalance of shoppers and visitors and bringing the area ‘back to life’.
• Improving its appearance: Enhancing the area with public realm amenities, planting, buildings, and tackling unattractive service area and blank frontages.
• Making better use of space: Re-purposing existing land and transforming vacant and under-used spaces for other purposes, particularly in and around Stone Cross Square.
• Protecting important architectural values: Ensuring that features and details of the area as buildings and spaces are redeveloped retain the area’s new town heritage.
• Improving pathways for pedestrians and cyclists: Creating safe, accessible and pleasant gateway entrances, removing cars where possible from the area and promoting public and sustainable transport.
• A significantly greener area: Building on existing green space features and creating opportunities for play spaces, community spaces, public art and other forms of green infrastructure.
If you know anyone without access to digital tools then the resources can be viewed in person at both the Harlow Council Civic Centre and Harlow Library until June 5.
