Overview
Hinckley’s Town Centre Public Realm Master Plan aims to shape a greener, healthier, and more resilient future while also capturing value from development, securing funding, and supporting highway improvements. The master plan includes enhancements to the environment, including urban greening, public realm enhancement and while celebrating the town’s rich heritage. Our work on the master plan has led to further commissions to produce town centre and wayfinding strategies for Hinckley.
Project Highlights
Clients
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council
Date
2019-2020
Scale
Town Centre
We are very pleased with the document and found (David Lock Associates) excellent to work with, their detailed engagement with stakeholders has meant that local businesses and the community have fully embraced this visionary document….I have no hesitation in fully recommending engagement with David Lock Associates Ltd.
Judith Sturley, Principle Economic Regeneration Officer, HBBC
The Project
Working closely with the Council, Hinckley Business Improvement District, and a range of stakeholders, we led a multidisciplinary team to develop a master plan that focused on improving the quality of Hinckley Town Centre’s public realm. Beginning with observation and analysis to gain an understanding of how the town centre is used and functions, followed by extensive community and stakeholder engagement, the plan is informed by and responds to current and future community needs.
The Process
The Hinckley Public Realm Master Plan was created to comprehensively set out ideas for potential improvements to the town centre’s public realm and key spaces. Through extensive community engagement, collaborative work with key stakeholders, and area mapping and analysis we produced a master plan that identified public realm improvement projects that addressed key council priorities. The outlined ideas included plans for enhancing arrival into Hinckley, increasing levels of active travel, reduction of car usage, celebration of the town’s heritage and increased planting and biodiversity. The master plan has become a key tool for the Borough Council helping them to improve the quality of highways and development proposals coming forward on land within the town centre and has been utilised to support funding bids. It successfully supported the Council’s bid for Heritage Action Zone funding, which will see implementation of improvements to the public realm and pedestrian connectivity.
Following work on the master plan, we were appointed to produce a town centre Wayfinding Strategy. This built on the principles and proposals established in the master plan, and led to a strategy that will see an overhaul of existing signage, to be replaced with new bespoke furniture designed to reflect the historic town centre’s character, meet accessibility standards, and promote walking and cycling to key destinations.