8. next steps

08_next steps

This document and its masterplan are a ‘thought leadership’ piece. At this stage it is not a detailed design. It’s the start of a process not the end.

It is a community-led vision – which now needs to be developed into one that is shared by others – principally the Council. The development of this shared plan is the next key step in this process. It will change and develop as the detail of the constraints and further opportunities arise and detailed debate takes place.

The key concepts can be found in the Strategic Framework (Figure 5). The Strategic Masterplan (Figure 7) is a visualisation of the Framework. The priority should be to share the concept of the neighbourhood we are trying to create.

– a liveable city centre neighbourhood.

costings and materials

The estimate of costs for the delivery of the Masterplan has been deliberately avoided as these costs can vary considerably. The next step of discussion and further design will produce such costings.

A key consideration of costs is the expense of the materials employed. It’s usual, with an area such as this, to jump straight into expensive materials, such as York Stone paving slabs and granite and York Stone setts. In historic streets such as White Friars and Old Hall Place this should be the case. However, in other places such as the Neighbourhood ‘Heart’, Cuppin Street, Back Weaver Street, Commonhall Street and Pierpoint Court, less expensive surface materials can, and perhaps should, be used. In such areas coloured tarmac, for example, could be used as has been the case in the recent resurfacing of Frodsham Street in Chester ( shared use scheme that won the Healthy Street Award in 2019) . The key is to use high quality ‘trims’ (Conservation / granite kerbs and channels) and high-quality street furniture.

The Council’s Commonhall Street Design Guide and its materials and street furniture guidelines provide the necessary guidance for this.

This neighbourhood should be a cool, vibrant and colourful place – an alternative to the formality of Chester’s Row streets. Therefore, the surface treatments and street furniture can have a more quirky, creative and artistic feel – involving local designers and artisans - and its design needs to be led by the local residents of this neighbourhood.

funding

There are a number of possible funding approaches available – though these are limited. The key ones are:

Shared Prosperity Fund – Currently open – the Council has been allocated £12.5 m from the Government's Shared Prosperity Fund as part of its Levelling Up agenda. This funding includes investments to build local pride including community-led projects. This funding will be aimed at projects that promote healthy and safe neighbourhoods, with investments that should improve the quality of places that people want to live, play and learn in - including improvements to the built and natural environment. The White Friars neighbourhood masterplan would seem to be ripe for this funding.

The Council is required to produce its investment plans for this funding by 1st August 2022.

Cheshire West & Chester Council Funding – The Council obviously can fund such projects under its own Capital Programme – as a whole, in part or programmed over a number of years. The Council may be interested in this approach because of the obvious sustainable development and sustainable transport aims that underpin the masterplan. The fact that this is a community-led initiative with obvious neighbourhood liveability aspirations should also make this an attractive investment for the Council. The Council will need to spend its monies on essential maintenance works to the street surfaces in the area anyway over the coming years, given their current state of repair. It is sometimes beneficial for a Council to substitute maintenance budget funding (which is always under pressure) for a larger Capital Programme spend. City-centre living will accelerate over the coming years with projects such as Northgate 2 coming on stream. The Council will face similar pressure to enhance other parts of the city centre as liveable neighbourhoods if city centre living is to be a success. The Council could consider supporting the project as a pilot for this liveable urban centre living approach. The Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) may wish to support this for similar reasons, as the promotion of city and town centre living in Chester is a priority for the LEP.

Safer Streets Fund (SSF) – some elements of the masterplan may be eligible for Safer Streets Funding from the Home Office. This is aimed at town and city centres and neighbourhoods. Although mainly aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour projects, projects aimed at improving the feeling of safety in public spaces are eligible.

The current SSF Round 4 bidding period has just closed – but there may be future rounds.

Active Travel England – a new fund aimed at encouraging walking and cycling and the uptake of e-cycles. This is a large fund (£200m) with a strong focus on cycling and walking – however, elements of the masterplan around walking and connectivity could well be successful – particularly the enhancement and waymarking of the lanes and alleyways and the neighbourhood ‘heart’.

National Lottery - Community Fund – a fund aimed at smaller projects that is targeted at organisations whose ambitions are shaped by the people they serve and supporting their communities. This fund has been used in other places to support the creation of temporary play streets and street animation schemes. The deadline for the next round is 30th September 2022.

Community Funding – there are three possible opportunities here:

• Crowd Funding – this would be for the local community to fund priority elements of the masterplan itself. Cheshire Crowd via Spacehive platform is being used for this. However, this is aimed at relatively small-scale community initiatives and will be more likely appropriate for neighbourhood activities and street animation, rather than any physical elements of the masterplan.

• Neighbourhood Funding – residents could invest in delivering elements of the masterplan themselves. This is more likely to be small distinct projects – but it could make a difference over time.

• Commercial Investment – there is continuous development in the area and local businesses trade from premises in the Neighbourhood ‘Heart’ area. It would be an attractive investment for a café / bar owner to increase the number of available covers through additional outdoor space, or a developer of new homes to invest in enhancing the environment of the potential residents of the new homes they are building.

Utility Companies – there are works planned by the utility companies in the area – e.g. major works at the eastern end of White Friars. Discussions with these companies could mean that reinstatement works are designed with the masterplan vision in mind.

a cocktail and programmed approach

It is more likely that the funding approach will be via a cocktail of all available funding sources, including funding programmes that have not as yet been launched. Neighbourhood liveability is increasingly becoming a priority for Government. Therefore, it is likely that it will develop and launch calls for such initiatives – particularly those that are community led.

Key to success for such likely future funding opportunities will be the availability of ‘oven-ready’ projects – particularly exemplars such as White Friars.

Community and/or Council match funding is usually a prerequisite for such programmes and would increase the likelihood of success.

Therefore, the work on the masterplan and its funding ‘business case’ needs to be continued in readiness for any such funding opportunities that will arise.

This ‘cocktail’ approach is a more pragmatic way forward – where the masterplan needs to be broken down into individual deliverable packages and programmed over time.

This should be part of the masterplan’s next steps.

neighbourhood action and initiative

Some community activities don’t cost much but can be very effective in changing the image of a place and in creating greater liveability. Temporary closure of roads to create Play Streets or to hold street events are powerful tools for change.

Many communities have successfully delivered temporary Play Streets in London, some with support from the National Lottery. Hoole in Chester has been particularly successful in organising temporary street events.

The participation of both residents and businesses with the support of the Council is critical for this.

now – shout about it!

The Commonhall Square neighbourhood now has a vision. The masterplan process and the plan itself illustrates this vision. The next thing to do is for the community to shout about it though a co-ordinated community-led communications campaign.