Placemaking

Introduction

The borough is a collection of physical places, each with its own function, identity and distinct character.  These places range in size from the smallest of public squares through to the largest of the borough's settlements.  Many of the larger places have a series of smaller places nested within them.  It is this collection of places makes the Royal Borough a unique location within England.

The borough is ambitious about its places.  Not only does it want to create new places in the borough that are beautiful, distinctive and function well, it also wants to maintain and improve its existing places.  It is vital to the council that the health, safety and quality of its places is very high and that they serve the many different communities that live in or visit the borough.

To support this the council is pursuing a placemaking agenda, not only in its planning functions, but also across the totality of the organisation.

Placemaking must, by its nature, be a multi-disciplinary task, involving all aspects that go into the creation of a place.  This includes not only physical spaces and the types of uses that lie within them but also the social, environmental, economic and utility infrastructure that enables them to function.    

It is also vitally important, if the borough's rich mosaic of places is to be successful, that local people and organisations are involved in their creation and on-going maintenance and evolution. 

The following webpages provide information on the various different placemaking workstreams that the council is currently progressing.  The pages are intended to act as an information resource for specific places, provide a news bulletin on progress with the placemaking work and signpost as to how you can get involved