CREATIVE THINKING PROJECT IDEAS from an Event Held at the Alnwick Garden on 26Th June 2018
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CREATIVE THINKING PROJECT IDEAS from an event held at The Alnwick Garden on 26th June 2018 BACKGROUND Following the Northumberland County Council’s Borderlands stakeholder event held at Northumberland Hall in Alnwick on 22nd May 2018, a number of local organisations felt it necessary to hold a wider consultation event which involved a broader spectrum of stakeholders and provided a greater opportunity to ‘have their say’ and input into the Borderlands debate. We acknowledged the remit and themes and geared the Alnwick event around the presentation from the 22nd May event as well as from the Dumfries Conference. Our Creative Thinking event took the form of round table discussion with table leaders capturing ideas and to allow opportunity for everyone to contribute. The AIM was to put Alnwick at the heart of Northumberland’s thinking in relation to the Borderlands Growth Deal and to enable businesses, traders, communities and residents to give creative input and express their views and aspirations for the town and Borderlands area. Consideration was also given to the proposals within the Draft Local Plan for the period 2016 – 2036 and what it intends to achieve over that period – for example: • Enable the development and diversification of the rural economy, and deliver the Borderlands Initiative, by supporting the creation and expansion of hubs for business services and creative industries in the County’s market towns, rural service centres and larger villages, and through more home run enterprises; • Support the growth and diversification of the visitor economy, including the development of tourism facilities and accommodation; • Support improvements to town centres; • Support initiatives to improve skills levels in Northumberland's resident workforce; • Allow Northumberland’s natural and historic environment to continue to be experienced and valued by residents and visitors, within the scope that is possible to maintain their full protection and allow for their enhancement; • Provide a range of viable, efficient sustainable transport alternatives to reduce reliance on the private motor vehicle, • Ensure Northumberland continues to have a well-established and spatially distributed network of waste management facilities, with sufficient capacity and that recycling and recovery rates are maximised; Additionally, consideration has been given to homeless statistics (Dept for Communities and Local Government). - 2 - MESSAGES FROM THE EVENT LEADERS Loving Alnwick is a community based concept, inspired by the Love Northumberland project. It is a non- political, not for profit community hub that has been created to work alongside more formal organisations. Loving Alnwick puts volunteering at the heart of its work and provides opportunities for local people to get involved in their communities and value where they live in meaningful ways. I feel that Loving Alnwick has much to offer in this stakeholder consultation process. My ambition for the Borderlands Growth Deal is to give local residents a voice and an opportunity to work in partnership with others to create some amazing ideas for Alnwick that will fulfil the remit of the Borderlands themes as stated by the Local Authorities and national government. Loving Alnwick, The Chamber of Trade and The Alnwick Garden agreed to work in partnership to lead this event. The interest and transformational ideas that ensued far exceeded our expectations and there is a desire for the consultation process to continue. Following simple publicity and ‘chatting on the streets’ it became evident that people in Alnwick have some great ideas and they are indeed passionate about their ‘destination’ and what the future holds for our young as well as older people. We hope the findings in this report demonstrate both commitment and understanding of the towns challenges and the aspirations for the future in making not only Alnwick but the Borders a great place to live, work and play. Linda Wood-Mitchell - Loving Alnwick Keep it Clean, Green and Safe. I really do believe if we could achieve this it would greatly improve the chances of big investment in the town. I strongly believe the market place should be at the heartbeat of the old town and should be the place we should concentrate our efforts. We need big attractions as we are more and more becoming a favourite destination. We need to make Alnwick a place where people want to come and spend quality time. People need to have a reason for being in the town therefore we need to seek to increase business use of the current empty shops before embarking on out of town development. We need to grab this opportunity through Borderlands to increase parking facilities and to ensure greater footfall into the town. Carlo Biagioni - Chamber of Trade (Chair) _______________________________________________________________________________________ I believe we should use the impetus created by this exercise to promote Alnwick by holding an event entitled Investing in Alnwick. This event should take the form of a conference held at the leisure centre. I believe it should be run by Alnwick Chamber of Trade together with other stakeholders in the town with help from ARCH in their new role of promoting the market towns. It should take the form of showcasing the positives about Alnwick. The aim would be to attract inward investment to the town in the form of manufacturing and service industries together with people wanting to come and live here. It could even include leisure service providers. It would also include retail businesses wishing to take vacant premises in the town centre. I would envisage this taking place in the spring of 2019. We are keen to develop the ideas put forward in this report whether or not we get substantial funding from Border Growth Fund (see Our Next Steps for more info). David Taylor - Chamber of Trade (Vice Chair) - 3 - The Borderlands Growth initiative is an inspiring one and offers the promise of significant transformational investment to areas that have historically felt marginalised by urban centric capital spending. The town of Alnwick is special and has great potential but as with many other historic market towns has a high street that has felt the impact of large retailers opening business parks on the outskirts of town. Another challenge is Alnwick’s reliance on tourism and the seasonal nature of this industry. There are solutions to these challenges but a significant amount of Capital investment will be needed. I can see a time in the not too distant future where Alnwick can boast a 12 month tourist season supporting new jobs and educational opportunities for young people. The Borderlands initiative offers a key to unlocking the potential of the area and The Alnwick Garden, as an active member of the Alnwick community, will support all the initiatives put forward that will benefit the area. Mark Brassell - The Alnwick Garden - 4 - Attendance at the Creative Thinking Event The event held on Tuesday 26th June attracted over 40 participants from over 17 different organisations along with residents, traders and town council members. Ideas have also been flooding in from people in the Chamber of Trade and others in organisations who could not attend the event but wished their thoughts to be included in the discussions. In total over 100 people have contributed with ideas that will make a real difference to the Borderlands themes of: Digital, Energy, Destination, Productivity, Business Growth, Transport, Innovation and Skills, and Quality of Place. - 5 - Representation at the meeting included: Additional contributions via email Local residents and websites have come from: Loving Alnwick Chamber of Trade members Local residents The Alnwick Garden Chamber of Trade members Alnwick Town Council Alnwick Arts and Crafts Keep it Clean Hardy’s Museum Alnwick Lions Markets/Local Living Tourist Information Alnwick Auctions NEED Ltd Rotary Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints Friends of the Earth Alnwick Civic Society Restaurants Bed and Breakfast establishments Business Co-operatives Alnwick Arch Climbing Centre Alnwick Talking Newspaper Some project ideas discussed around the tables Key Issues Alnwick Distillery Training and upskilling Seek out Investors – Brexit opportunities/find key people/who Health inequality/ageing are our celebrities population/obesity Business Park – Starter Units, Science Park, Hot desking Decline of the arts Borderlands College/Centre of Excellence/Knowledge exchange Need for entrepreneurs/investors Transport Hub - Extend the Railway – Park and Ride – Parking Infrastructure - Cycleway Empty business premises Affordable Housing No jobs for young people Digital Connectivity Young people leaving the area Town Centre Improvements - cobbles, car parking, pedestrian Lack of joined-up thinking zones, market place Adventure Hub - Climbing Centre – Social/Community spaces Recycling Village Rehabilitation Village Alnwick Foyer – for vulnerable young people living in the Borders Borderlands promotion of the area – video/interactive website/ Alnwick Business Village Aln Valley Railway extension/extend cycleway/Boris bikes Electric car charging points Cover in the market place Cinema, Arts Town centre improvements Detail ideas already in the pipeline WHAT FOLLOWS We have co-ordinated the results/ideas into your template for your further consideration as requested. - 6 - PROJECT TEMPLATES COMPLETED TO THE BEST OF OUR ABILITY AT THIS STAGE 1. Alnwick Town Centre Transformation 2. Aln Valley Railway Project/Cycleway improvements