North Norfolk District Council has appointed Influence to the townscaping element of the North Walsham high street heritage action zone project, along with partners
The team aim to provide sustainable solutions to urban planning and have extensive experience of working in conjunction with local authorities and communities to deliver landscaping and public realm services, including working on High Street Heritage Action Zones projects elsewhere in the UK.
Master planning and consultation will be led by HETA – a studio of architects, designers and thinkers.
Having completed a site visit the team will implement a programme of consultation and community engagement to see how the people of North Walsham want to see the space in the town centre used.
Other partners involved include Rees Bolter Architects as heritage consultants, BSP for highways and transport consultancy and Gleeds Cost Management, quantity surveyors.
This work is a vital part of the programme’s wider placemaking objectives, inspiring people to re-imagine and re-engage with the town centre as the heart of the community.
It will focus on making the town centre a destination that embraces its heritage and community, creating a shared space people can enjoy, take pride in and encourages others to visit.
The Council and partners will seek to hear what residents, businesses and visitors want to see in North Walsham and foster a sense of community that maximises shared value by making it easier to move around the town centre and improve the appearance and quality of public spaces, starting with work which will see the improvement of the Lokes and alleyways that connect different areas within the town centre.
The project is part of Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zone scheme to renew and revive town centres in England, with match funding from The Council and additional funding secured from the New Anglia LEP’s “Getting Building Fund”.
Re-imagining North Walsham
Shona Hatton, associate director at Influence, said: “High Street Heritage Action Zones are such a key part of the future for our towns – especially post the pandemic – and are often driven by strong local community interest.
“Revitalising and regenerating our high streets whilst reinstating the heritage roots is critical to their success, now and in the future.
“North Walsham is a vibrant market town but has been waiting for a long time to bring forward a high street public realm project.
“Now that it’s here, myself and the Influence team are honoured to have been selected to work on this important project, and are pleased to be supporting North Norfolk District Council’s in-house team.
“Our previous experience in delivering High Street Heritage Action Zones has given us specialist knowledge and understanding of the challenges and huge opportunities in our high streets and we are using those assets to re-imagine the physical and social environment in North Walsham, to enable it to be a prosperous town where people want to live, work and relax.”
