Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester Leicester A city with a - PDF document

8/14/2012 Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester Leicester A city with a rich heritage and many gems… …but they are poorly connected, with many barriers preventing people from moving around the city. Future The city centre of our city is the heart of Leicester – So far the story of Leicester has been about our both for local people and past. visitors But we also need to look to the future of our city. I believe we have the chance to make Leicester an We need to encourage more people to shop, work, live even better place to live, work and to visit, as well and spend their leisure time here. as making sure it grows and prospers. If we plan our investment carefully, we can encourage This presentation will tell you more about our plans, others to invest, creating leisure facilities, new shops and and we want to listen to you and know what you places for businesses to thrive. think. This will mean more jobs for Leicester people and more Sir Peter Soulsby money for people to spend in the city, to develop the local City Mayor economy. Firstly, we should Creating a stronger, vibrant city centre recognise that our city Like many cities, Leicester faces a number of threats and challenges. Out of town shopping, internet retailing and has many strengths and other nearby cities all compete for business. So, if Leicester is to succeed in the future, we need to assets we can be proud recognise the environment we’re in. Our plan is to start to deliver some key projects over the next few years, through a programme called ‘ Connecting of: Leicester’. But before we do anything, we would like to listen to your views. Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester Leicester 1

8/14/2012 Strengths and assets… Strengths and assets… •A retail heart , offering quality modern shopping at •A cultural quarter that includes Curve Theatre, Athena, Highcross, unique independent retailers in the arcades Phoenix Square and a growing range of bars and and the Lanes area, and an established and busy market restaurants. place. •L eisure opportunities that include the Showcase Cinema de Lux and a wide choice of bars, restaurants and clubs. •The historic old town , with the Cathedral and Guildhall • Carnivals and festivals staged throughout the year providing a quality environment at the edge of the retail celebrating Leicester’s culture and diversity. heart. •The Belgrave Road – the city’s Golden Mile, with a vibrant authentic Asian mix of restaurants, sari shops and jewellers attracting thousands of local people and visitors •A rich mediaeval and Roman heritage seen across a to the area historic area that includes Jewry Wall, the Castle and gardens, St Mary de Castro church and the Magazine • Abbey Park and the Waterside – quality green space and a waterside environment just five minutes’ walk from the city centre. Connecting Leicester Connecting Leicester Connecting the city All of these different areas and their relationship to each other make up our great City. The strength of the different areas creates an exciting opportunity for our City. Together we need to build on these strengths. Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester We need to Making the connections remove barriers and create There are good opportunities to connections within the city connect the shopping, heritage, leisure, centre green spaces and waterside areas Whilst Leicester benefits from a flat, compact and across the City Centre. walkable central area, less sensitive development in the past has created barriers which affect our perception of Individually these are distances and how easy it is to move between different areas of quality but if areas. we provide better links and easy pedestrian Our priority is to create good foot and cycle connections movement between that link these areas together, to provide a safe, secure areas we can create a family-friendly City Centre. stronger City Centre. Travelling by car will remain important to the accessibility of the city for some people, but we need to look at how we can reduce the influence of the car and the barriers the current network creates. Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester 2

8/14/2012 How can we make the The opportunities – what we need to connect… most of the We need to make it much easier to move from place to place within the city. By connecting some of these key opportunities? projects , we can enhance the whole of the City Centre, encourage more people to visit and make it more attractive for investors. Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester Opportunities Opportunities and projects we have already and projects which will follow: started to work on Improved connections with the High Street through to Leicester Market will entice visitors to explore the Arcades, The Story of Leicester – we want to enhance the city's The Lanes, St Martin’s Square and Leicester Market. heritage by improving interpretation and the heritage buildings themselves, as well as the historic environment. We The Market- redevelopment of the market and the also want to increase access to the council's own heritage improvements to the surrounding public realm is an buildings. opportunity to create an attractive destination, drawing more shoppers and pedestrians through the area Humberstone Gate East – significant highway and public realm works are already happening as part of a project to The Arcades – the council-owned Malcolm Arcade is to be reduce congestion, improve the area for pedestrians and refurbished. Royal Arcade is currently being refreshed. make access to buses easier. The privately-owned Silver Arcade – built in 1899 and is the The Golden Mile regeneration programme – the only four-storey Victorian arcade in England, is currently improvements to the public spaces and traffic management being refurbished to attract small, independent retailers. together with more attractive shop fronts and enhanced marketing will enhance the visitor experience in this area. Odeon Arcade owners have plans to improve the entrance from Leicester market. Heritage open days – taking place in September 2012 Connecting Connecting Leicester Leicester Leicester Opportunities… Opportunities… Jubilee Square will be a destination in its own right, but it Extending New Walk – Creating an enhanced pedestrian will also form an important stepping stone between the old thoroughfare, widening the pavement on Newarke Street town, the retail area and the area beyond the inner ring and creating a tree lined route, linking to the pedestrian road, including the Waterside, Jewry Wall, the Castle area route from Jubilee Square and making it easier to cross the and the Magazine. It will form a gateway to the City Centre. inner ring road to the Magazine. 2013. 2013/14 The extension of the City Centre pedestrian zone to Hotel The new square provides an opportunity to open up the Street and St Martin’s will provide a high quality frontage of Wygston's House , helping to bring this pedestrian link between Market Street, the Lanes area and important building back into economic use. High Street. 2013-2015 A programme of pedestrian improvements is being Developing further improvements to streets to create new developed to complement Jubilee Square. These will allow and pedestrian-friendly routes . people to move more easily around the City Centre. 2013/15 Cathedral Gardens- a Cathedral led project providing new public gardens, and a high quality space framing the Cathedral and the Guildhall. Linked pedestrian improvements to Peacock Lane and Guildhall Lane make this another important stepping stone within the heritage area. 3

8/14/2012 Opportunities … Your views… The creation of a route along Pocklington’s Walk , Berridge Street and Greyfriars, linking to the retail core We’re keen to hear what and Highcross . This would feature widened footways and improved crossings for pedestrians at junctions you think of our plans and, 2014/15. specifically, the proposals The ‘John Biggs’ island in front of the current council offices needs to be redesigned to accommodate high quality for Jubilee Square. crossings between New Walk and the new routes – 2014 Church Gate, Belgrave Gate, Gravel Street, Horsefair You can let us have your comments by: Street and Belvoir Street will all be improved as • Filling in the on line consultation form developments or traffic management changes take place. on these web pages • In person at one of the events we’re organising from August onwards • By post – send your views to: XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Kevin Fazackerley – Reconnecting our City Next steps: • Finalise website and broad Connecting Leicester consultation material and set up channels Next steps • Finalise Connecting Leicester – Jubilee Square consultation materials web content, leaflets, exhibition pop up boards • Finalise other communication materials • Establish and reserve venues for display of Connecting (not part of public presentation) Leicester – Jubilee Square consultation material – accessible public venues around the city centre Launch Connecting Leicester consultation – 1 st August 2012 • • Public and stakeholder consultation August – October 2012 Connecting Leicester Mock-up of page on City Mayor’s website 4