The Council held a regeneration workshop on the 1 December 2014, chaired by The Prince’s Regeneration Trust (PRT). The objective was to engage local stakeholders in reviewing the opportunities for the area of the town that lies to the west of the Priory and how linkages to the town centre could be made. From this, priorities can be set for key buildings and open spaces and potential regeneration sites.
The PRT report (please note this report has been written by an external organisation) on this workshop details a series of recommendations for the future of the area
Worksop futures consultation feedback
To help improve our local area we gave you the opportunity to have your say on Retford.
We wanted to know what you liked about living in the town and what you felt needed improving.
To do this we ran a 6-week consultation period including online surveys and an event at Retford Town Hall.
We received a staggering 2,626 individual comments from a total of 246 residents who took part.
Here is a summary of what you told us
Over 150 of you attended our event at Worksop Town Hall in March 2015. This was a great opportunity for the public to speak to council officers, ask questions and discuss the future of our town.
You spoke, we listened
- Most people think Worksop is a safe and friendly place to live
- Locals welcome the new bus station
- A night-time economy is needed
- Many of you think shop fronts need improving and empty premises reduced
- There are still issues with parking in the town centre
- People would like to see a better variety of shops, especially high-end businesses
- The council should focus on reusing brownfield sites before building on greenfield sites
Questionnaire feedback
Worksop in General
- 3 in 5 people think there isn’t enough affordable housing in Worksop
- 7 in 10 people feel there aren’t enough job opportunities in the area
- Many people like living near the countryside
- Many of you enjoy using local services such as the Savoy Cinema and Clumber Park
In your local area
- Most respondents disliked dog fouling and littering
- Many would like to see footpaths and cycle paths improved
- People like being close to the countryside
- Many enjoy the quietness and open space in their neighbourhood
- Junctions on Gateford Road at Raymoth Lane and Ashes Park Avenue need improving
In the Town Centre
- The majority of residents visit Worksop town centre on a daily or weekly basis
- Most people use the town centre for shopping along with work, banking & leisure
- 7 in 10 of you think that the town centre has too few shops
- 2 out of 3 respondents thought the appearance of shop fronts were bad or very bad
- Many of you think the town centre needs cleaning up to a better standard
- Most people didn’t think the council should resurface Bridge Street
- Over half Of respondents thought there was a good amount of signage
- 80%said the council should prioritise restoring Worksop’s historic buildings
- People would like to see better shops and restaurants
Worksop intervention plan
This intervention strategy seeks to identify the opportunities for the Council to guide, or where necessary, intervene on sites and projects within the wider Worksop area.
In certain cases, it may be that the Council has an active role to play either through commissioning reports and/or as the landowner. Furthermore, the Council can offer guidance and assistance to private landowners and investors. It is the intention that this Strategy helps to identify and prioritise the options available for this area.
Introduction
This intervention strategy seeks to identify the opportunities for the Council to guide, or where necessary, intervene on sites and projects within the wider Worksop town centre area.
In certain cases, it may be that the Council has an active role to play either through commissioning reports and/or as the landowner. Furthermore,
the Council can offer guidance and assistance to private landowners and investors. It is the intention that this strategy helps to identify and prioritise the options available for this area.
This work has been informed by various pieces of work which have recently been completed which identified potential regeneration options for this area. These include:
- Review of the Council’s industrial sites undertaken by Savills;
- Review of key regeneration opportunities along the Canal Road and Priorswell Road area undertaken by the Prince's Regeneration Trust;
- Public consultations with residents and visitors to Worksop regarding their views on the future of the town and potential areas for improvements; and
- Discussion with key stakeholders, such as the Business Forum, Civic Society, Canal and Rivers’ Trust, infrastructure providers and landowners (including Nottinghamshire County Council).
As part of this work, an officer working group has been to ensure delivery of the key projects identified and the interventions required. It is expected that this strategy will be updated on a regular basis.
Vision and Strategic Objectives
Vision
Worksop town centre will be a thriving environment for high quality shopping, leisure, cultural and entertainment purposes. Worksop will boast attractive streets and spaces providing high quality spaces to live, work and spend time in throughout the day and evening.
Strategic objectives
These are the overarching objectives for the Intervention Strategy:
- Strengthen the town centre as a vibrant retail, leisure, entertainment, cultural business and tourism destination for residents and visitors
- Grow the town centre as a place to do business by creating a creative industries hub and provide better quality and quantity of business parks
- Create a choice of high quality homes in and around the town centre
- Improve the quality of buildings (especially the focal buildings), streets and spaces, including their maintenance and management
- Provide convenient access to the town centre by all modes of travel and enable easier pedestrian movement from the train and bus stations
- To enhance the town’s historic assets and the conservation area
- To improve the perception of Worksop as a service, retail and visitor destination
Areas of Intervention
There have been four distinctive themes identified to steer interventions within Worksop town. These are:
A sense of arrival
This theme is focused on ensuring that visitors must be sure that they have “arrived in Worksop” and that they have a good first impression of the town. Furthermore, their route around the town must be well sign posted and easy to follow.
An attractive town to visit and spend time in
This theme is focused on safeguarding and where possible improving the reasons behind what attracts people to visit and spend time here. This includes the unique leisure and visitor attractions Worksop has to offer through the day and into the evening.
A great place to live and work in
This theme is to create an attractive environment for people to live and work in the town. There are two aspects to this theme and interventions will be focused on extending the options available through improving the quality of the current stock of housing and business premises and improving the quantity through new house building and the construction of new business parks.
A vibrant retail and service centre
This theme is linked to ensuring the town centre is a place where people can access a wide range of shops, services and facilities.
A sense of arrival
This theme is focused on ensuring that visitors must be sure that they have “arrived in Worksop” and that they have a good first impression of the town. Worksop is well connected by road including the A57 (east/west direction), the A60 (north and south) and the A619 (southwest) which provide good connections to the A1 and M1. The town is also served by a recently purpose-built bus station and train station, both are close to the town centre. Furthermore, the Chesterfield Canal which runs directly through the town in an east/west direction is another route for visitors to enter the town. Therefore, there are several key entry points into the town from most directions and modes of transport.
Interventions within this theme will also look at ensuring visitors to the town will have access to clear and accurate directional signage to ensure it is easy to navigate around the town.
This will include consideration of the different types of car parks, the current signage and how traffic and pedestrians move around the town.
Objectives
These are the main objectives for this theme:
- To instil a sense of arrival when people visit Worksop, North Nottinghamshire
- To create attractive gateways into the town for all users (vehicular and non-vehicular)
- To provide clear and relevant signposting for visitors’ needs
Priorities for intervention
The priorities for intervention specific to this theme include:
- Improve the road based gateways into the town (including the roundabouts on the A57, Newcastle Avenue and Victoria Square)
- Improve the public transport gateways into the town (the bus and train stations)
- Improve the non-vehicular gateways (such as the Chesterfield Canal and public footpaths)Review the vehicular routes and associated directional signage to key locations such as the services and facilities within the town
- Review the vehicular routes and associated directional signage to key locations, such as car parks and visitor destinations (such as the Priory Church, Priory Shopping Centre and the Cinema) and the pedestrian movements linked to this
- Improve existing pedestrian and vehicular pinch points to ensure that this does not detract from the visitor experience (such as Newcastle Avenue and Bridge Street)
- Consideration of Article 4 directions on key gateway routes into the town
An attractive town to visit and spend time in
This theme is focused on safeguarding and/or improving the reasons behind what attracts people to visit and spend time within Worksop. This includes the various leisure opportunities and the unique visitor attractions Worksop has to offer.
Worksop boasts a number of visitor attractions, such as the Priory Church, Priory Gatehouse and Mr Straw's House. Furthermore, there are a number of leisure opportunities within the town, including the newly improved Canch (town park), Godfrey's Pond and the recently built Savoy Cinema, as well as easy access to the Chesterfield Canal.
Interventions within this theme will highlight these assets and identify opportunities for their enhancement or opportunities to increase these within the town.
Objectives
These are the main objectives for this theme:
- To promote the existing visitor attractions within the town
- To explore new opportunities for visitors to spend time within the town
- To increase the quantity and quality of the leisure facilities within the town
- To create an attractive environment for people to spend time in
- To increase the reasons for people to visit the town during the day and in the evenings
- To restore historic buildings, including shop fronts, and bring underused historic spaces back into use
- To improve the access to and frontage onto the Chesterfield Canal
Priorities for intervention
The priorities for intervention specific to this theme include:
- To ensure that the Canch town park and gardens maintain and where possible enhance its current provision and green flag standard
- Re-use of vacant buildings (such as those on upper Bridge Street and the former public houses around the Old Market Square)
- Re-use of the buildings and spaces to the rear of premises (such as at the back of Bridge Street)
- Identify new sites to increase the amount of floorspace available for leisure uses
- Improvements to the Chesterfield Canal (such as pedestrian access and visual appearance of developments fronting onto it)
A great place to live and work in
The primary focus for this theme is to create an attractive environment for people to live and/ or work in the town. There are two aspects to this theme and interventions will be focused on improving the quality of the current stock of housing and business premises and increasing the quantity through new house building and the construction of new business parks.
The existing housing stock in Worksop is varied, at one side of the housing market there is a large former mining community at Manton (with a high percentage of Council properties) to the large urban extension at Gateford (which are largely owner occupied) with pockets of high absentee landlords which surround the town centre. There are also further housing growth planned to the north and west of Worksop.
The Council has recently established a Creative Industry hub on Canal Road through converting old, derelict buildings. There are other industrial sites in Worksop which also require investment and improvement to bring the premises back into good quality, usable space (some of which are in Council ownership). There are two further private business parks which have been granted planning permission on the outskirts of Worksop which could add to the employment offer of the town (Manton Wood extension and at Shireoaks Common).
Objectives
These are the main objectives for this theme:
- To improve the quality of the existing employment offer in the town
- To increase the quantity of business parks within the town
- To provide a wide range of job opportunities within the town
- To focus on creating an attractive environment to live and work
- To improve the quality of the existing housing stock within the town
- To increase the quantity of homes within the town
- To improve the access to and frontage onto the Chesterfield Canal
Priorities for intervention
The priorities for intervention specific to this theme include:
- Re-use of the vacant or under-used sites for increasing the employment or housing opportunities within this area
- Increase the quantity and quality of usable business floorspace in Council ownership
A vibrant retail and service centre
This theme is linked to ensuring the town centre is a place where people can access a wide range of shops, services and facilities, creating a vibrant town centre.
Interventions that are identified within this theme are focused on increasing the quality and range of the retail offer within the town centre, from well-known high street conglomerates to smaller independent retailers and market traders. This will also involve focusing on the main retail offer being based around the Priory Shopping Centre and the lower Bridge Street area. The remaining parts of Bridge Street, and surrounding land and premises, will also play an important part in creating a thriving retail and service centre.
Furthermore, Worksop offers a variety of services and facilities which bring many visitors to the town each week. This ranges from accessing public services in the Council offices, police station, GP surgeries, hospitals and dental clinics to accessing higher education, sporting facilities and public transport hubs and routes.
Objectives
These are the main objectives for this theme:
- To improve the quality and size of the retail units available within the town centre
- To increase the range of the retail offer
- To reduce the amount of empty shops
- To ensure the market remains an asset to the town
- To create an attractive environment to shop and spend time
- To safeguard the current services and facilities within the town centre
- To increase the quantity and range of services and facilities within the town centre
Priorities for intervention
The priorities for intervention specific to this theme include:
- Re-use/re-development of clusters of vacant premises in the town centre
- Increase the amount of quality retail floorspace at and around the Priory Centre (including rationalising the unit sizes to create larger more attractive units for the market)
- Opportunities to improve (and increase if required) the pedestrian realm along Bridge Street through to Victoria Square
- Increasing footfall across the town centre
- Identify opportunities to enhance the market (including improving the scope and quality of goods being sold)
- Identify opportunities for new services and facilities within or close to the town centre
Last Updated on Wednesday, December 20, 2023