What the town centre masterplan would really mean for Basingstoke

Developed by Allies and Morrison and Hemingway Design, the document, produced at a cost of £187,733 and after six months of analysis of a public survey, sets out five key principles to shape the future of Basingstoke: place, prosperity, progressive, purpose, and participatory.

Whilst the 52-page document deals mainly with high-level principles and gives little away in terms of specific plans for the town centre, there are a few changes it proposes that make interesting reading.

The masterplan proposes scrapping the one-way system on New Road and replacing it with two-way traffic.

READ MORE: Results of Basingstoke town centre masterplan revealed

We've all become used to the clockwise rotation of having to get anyway, and having other cars darting in and out from both lanes of traffic, but this could be set to come to an end if the masterplan is brought to life.

Elsewhere on the roads, the document pledges that the town centre will become more walkable and cycle-friendly, with a new bus interchange at Churchill Way, near the Anvil, and a new multi-storey car park in New Road.

The biggest of these ideas is traffic zones which would mean cars would be unable to drive between parts of the inner town.

It would work by splitting the inner town - the area inside the ringway - into five zones: Houndmills & Oakridge, Basing View, Eastrop, King's Furlong, and Brookvale.

In a private car, you can drive into this zone from the ring road, but you must use the ring road to travel from one zone to another. Buses will be able to travel from zone to zone.

Photo: BDBC/Hemingway Design/Allies and Morrison

The idea behind this is to reduce the traffic through the town centre.

Other ideas in the masterplan include "reimagining" the Malls building, to "open up" the area. The Top of Town's shopfronts would be modernised, which would create opportunities for community, cultural, entrepreneurial and educational use, but it would also celebrate the "borough's rich heritage", according to the council.

The document also pledges to increase the number of indepedent shops in the area.

But there is no news on whether there will be more housing in Festival Place, after The Gazette revealed earlier this summer that 1,500 flats could be built in the town centre amid falling shop numbers.

But many of the plans drawn up in the document, which cost almost £200,000, were actually already considered and approved by the council.

How Churchill Way could look. Photo: BDBC/Hemingway Design/Allies and Morrison

In 2014, BDBC's then deputy leader, Ranil Jayawardena, launched a vision of the Top of Town area which included turning New Road into a two-way road, as well as more independent shops and a multi-storey car park on Southern Road.

Additionally, there has been talks of introducing a bus station on Churchill Way, and introducing two-way traffic at the Top of Town, in recent years.

The details included at this stage are not proposals, according to cabinet member Cllr Hannah Golding. The council are currently consulting on the document and feedback will help shape the document before it is put forward for adoption at council in the spring.