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| New Forest District Council |
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Options which could help shape the future of Ringwood’s town centre will go before councillors at Ringwood Public Offices on Thursday (4pm).
People in the town have been asked for their views on four possible alternatives for the Furlong Car Park and those views will be considered at a meeting of the Ringwood Town Centre steering group.
The four options are for:
- Mixed use, including multi-storey and double-decked car parks, extra shops, new community building, toilets, car park, community building with public offices, new square, bus station and taxi area.
- New shops, part double-decked car park, new square, bus and taxi facility, toilets and visitor information centre.
- Community hall, new public offices, visitor information centre, toilets, slightly reduced parking.
- No new development, except for new toilets and visitor information centre.
With 1,369 people marking their preferences on the questionnaire section of the council’s survey document, the ‘no new development’ option was slightly the most popular with 588 ticks, followed by the mixed use option with 534, while options two and three received just 90 and 157 votes respectively.
A majority of responders (712 compared with 551 against it) liked the idea of a theatre/community building in the mixed use option but the only overwhelming preference was expressed by 1,107 people in favour of better public information services and new toilets, with 215 against.
In his report to be considered at Thursday’s meeting, council head of planning Chris Elliott sums up: “Overall, it is to be concluded that the results of the survey are not clear cut in that there are two reasonably balanced views about a major development on the south-western corner of the Furlong Car Park.
“Your officer’s view, however, is strongly influenced by the professional advice that Ringwood does need to develop additional shopping floor space over the next 10 years if it is to maintain its current position as a thriving market town.
“If it does not, then new shopping expenditure will be attracted elsewhere and this would be detrimental to the longer term prospects of the town.
“It is not the case of trying to compete with Southampton and Bournemouth, but to maintain existing vitality and viability by retaining its current market share when shopping expenditure is growing.”
The officers’ report also recommends that a mixed scheme should be referred to the council’s cabinet as the preferred option, with a further recommendation for funding of £100,000 to engage consultants with a view to progressing the scheme to the stage of the appointment of a development partner. |
