Minutes:
Audio recording – Start of Item – 8 minutes 40 seconds
Mr Keith Hoskins and Morag Norgan, Hitchin Initiative, and Mr David Edwards, Place-Make, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave a PowerPoint presentation regarding the Churchgate Shopping Centre and the surrounding area.
Mrs Norgan introduced the presentation and advised this was not about the history of Churchgate, but about what came next.
In light of the possibility of new development, the Hitchin Society had reconvened, under the Hitchin Action Group banner, to look at fresh ideas.
David Edwards was an urban designer, living in Hitchin, who would present a very exciting proposition that would begin the discussion about how Hitchin could evolve so that it remained a vibrant community which was able to respond to the changing demands of business and businesses.
Mr Edwards explained that the idea was to stop looking at Churchgate as a building, but rather look at how it fitted into the urban context.
When talking about Churchgate it was difficult see beyond Churchgate the building. He had looked at the context and the flow of the town centre and movement through it.
Due to the development of the town centre over many years, there were very predominant east/west routes and very few north/south routes and there was no natural market place that was a central part of the town.
Churchgate dominated one side of the market square and was very different to the other side of the square where the building wee more evenly distributed.
The discussion should be about the type of place any redevelopment would create and this proposition considered the routes through the town and the part that Churchgate could play in opening up the town centre and repair the urban fabric of the town centre that had been affected over the last 200 years.
There was the potential to incorporate the market, link heritage aspects, open up views to St Mary’s and forge north/south links through the town.
Members were asked to consider how these ideas could be taken forward.
In response to questions from Members, the presenters advised:
· They were talking about ways to find the momentum to sway the Local Authority to consider other concepts and ideas, rather than about specifics;
· The intention of the presentation was to highlight how the town centre had developed in the 16th century causing the issues being discussed today and to try to prevent a similar discussion taking place following the redevelopment of Churchgate;
· The ideal would be to develop a master plan or concept framework that could be developed over time.
Members were supportive of the ideas in the presentation but explained that the Council could not control what happened to buildings that they did not own and had some concerns that the lager the project became and the more people involved, the less likely it was to be successful.
It was suggested that Hitchin Initiative develop a detailed plan and present it to the Authority as a way to stat the discussion.
The Committee expressed a wish to work closely with the local groups to look at the scheme in more detail.
The Deputy Chief Executive had been given a copy of the presentation and had been asked to undertake wider consultation.
The Chairman thanked Mr Hoskins and his colleagues for their presentation.