Consultation leaflet, masterplan proposal, theme ... - Harlow Council

Get Involved...
...Tell us how we should improve
Harlow Town Park
A Beautiful Park
Planting and mature trees provide colour, texture and seasonal interest around the park, enhancing people’s
enjoyment of the park. Would you like to see new or enhanced ornamental planting, shrubberies and flower
display beds?
Access & Information
Does the signage within the park give you the information you need? Are the entrances welcoming, accessible
and clearly marked? Would you like to see enhanced entrances, better footpath and cycle links or improved,
more readily available signage & information?
Park Infrastructure
What is your opinion of the park benches and bins within Harlow Town Park? Would you like to see new lighting or
footpaths links? Do you think there should be improvements to the existing infrastructure?

Harlow Town Park
We need to know your priorities for improvement, so get involved!
Harlow Town Park is the focus of a consultation process during this
autumn. The Council wants to involve local groups and individuals in
the consultation process to help improve this unique and much
valued park.
Do you think the park would benefit
from new signage, more information
and improved footpaths?
Maybe you love Pets Corner and want
to see more animals there?
Perhaps you want the bandstand to be
given a facelift and more activities
going on?
Would you like to see Spurriers House or
other heritage features restored and
enhanced?
Do you want views across the Stort
Valley from Lookout Hill to be restored?
Perhaps you’re keen to volunteer for
“hands on” activities in the park?
Whatever your thoughts, you can give us your views and opinions
during October and November in the following ways:
Visit the Pets Corner Exhibition and take part 22 October - 30 October
Join us at the Consultation Event on 21 October at the Harvey Centre
Complete a questionnaire available from: Civic Centre or Library
Email us at: info@lanarca.co.uk
Visit the website to find out more - www.harlow.gov.uk
allen scott LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Harlow
Council
Working together for Harlow

What is happening?
Harlow Council is developing plans to conserve and improve the
park, improve its facilities and restore heritage features.
The Council submitted a Round 1 bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in
early 2010 and was successful in securing a grant to undertake
further work to develop a Round 2 bid. At the next stage, when the
Round 2 bid is submitted (February 2012), our project will be assessed
in competition with other projects in other places. We are seeking
the views and opinions of park users and local residents - even if you
don’t use the park - to shape the improvement proposals and
demonstrate the importance of Harlow Town Park to the
communities it serves.
How can I get involved?
On 21 October from 11.00am-4.00pm we
are holding a Consultation Event at the
Harvey Centre, near the escalators on
the ground floor.
Or take part in the Pets Corner Exhibition
every day from 22 - 30 October.
Come along, find out more about this
exciting project and give your views on
the future of Harlow Town Park.
Your opinions are important so help us shape the future!
Visit Harlow Council’s website
(http://www.harlow.gov.uk/) to find out more. If you want to speak to
the Project team, please telephone Harlow Council on 01279 446655

Harlow Town Park
Visitor Facilities
Would you like to see new and improved facilities? For example, improved toilets, a coffee shop or improvements
to car parking? Do you think Harlow Town Park would benefit from improved or additional visitor facilities?
Nature, Education & Conservation
How important is the natural environment of Harlow Town Park to you? Is nature conservation in the park and the
education of its users a priority for you? Would you like us to maintain the rich natural environment of the park and
allow more people to learn about it?
Restoring Heritage Features
Harlow Town Park has a rich and interesting heritage, which can be seen in the features within the park, such as
the 1970s Bandstand, the 1960s Paddling Pool and the Victorian Spurriers House. Would you like to see these
features returned to their former glory? How important is Harlow Town Park’s heritage to you?
What is important to you in
Harlow Town Park?

The Story So Far -
Harlow Council made a successful Round 1
application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in
early 2010.
This proposed investment in:
restoring key features
access improvements
new planting
lighting within the park
play and other new features
The Council, together with its partners including
Town Park Users Group and Harlow Civic Society
secured a grant of over £104,000 from the HLF.
Match funding has been put forward by the
Council of £61,758 together with an undertaking
develop the proposals submitted at Round 1, and
make a Round 2 submission in February 2012.
What was the ‘Round 1’ submission?
The initial bid to the HLF was co-ordinated by the
Council with help from consultants and specialists.
It comprised a ‘Concept Masterplan’ – a drawing
showing the park and ideas to improve it, together
with an ‘Outline Conservation Statement’. This
statement summarised the historic significance of
the park, its development over time and its
importance today to the community it serves.
As part of the Round 1 submission, it was essential
to be able to demonstrate clear evidence of the
involvement and the aspirations of local people.
In order to be successful in the HLF grant awarding
process, we needed to show that the scheme has
the support of local people.
Visitors to the park have been consulted at various
times in the past and with feedback gathered
over several years, the Council was able to
demonstrate clear support for both the
improvement proposals and the park. The HLF
grant, which will allow the concept ideas to be
developed into a full set of detailed proposals,
was therefore awarded.
WHAT WERE THE CRUCIAL ELEMENTS LEADING
TO THE SUCCESS OF THE BID?
Heritage value of Harlow Town Park
Match funding in place (only a proportion of the
scheme costs would be funded by HLF)
High level of community support
Where is the Project up to?
The HLF grant includes enough funding for the
Council, together with its partners and local people,
to discover much more about the park and build
on the ideas approved by the HLF – working these
up into deliverable designs.
Lanarca was appointed by the Council in May 2011
to lead the project. The team also includes
specialists Allen Scott, Landscape Architects and
Architects and the project will have input from a
wide range of professional disciplines including:
Landscape Architecture
Architecture
Arboriculturalists (tree specialists)
Surveyors
Ecologists

Harlow Town Park
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR?
Working together with the Council, the project team is preparing:
1. To gather lots of new information - How people use the park
- What people want
- Understanding site ecology
- Knowing more about structures and buildings
- Cataloguing events on the site
- Understanding its history
2. A Conservation Management Plan – Setting out a direction for the future, conserving heritage and
protecting the park. This document will benefit from input from many stakeholders including English
Heritage
3. A detailed Management & Maintenance Plan – With a ten year action plan, together with costs for
maintaining and managing the park
4. An Activity Plan – Setting out ways in which the project will be delivered, with community involvement
including a volunteering plan
5. A Masterplan for the park - An overarching drawing including design proposals for development
and restoration
These documents and drawings, informed by all the surveys undertaken, will form part of the Round 2 bid to the HLF
And the ‘Round 2’ submission?
Over the next few months we will be:
Consulting with park users, non users and
stakeholder groups
‐ October Consultation Event
‐ December Masterplan presentation
‐ Consultation with schools
‐ Dialogue with stakeholders and groups
Advancing designs following feedback
‐ Refinement of Masterplan
‐ Final updates to be included within detailed
plans
‐ Collation of drawings for HLF submission
Preparing the Round 2 application documents
including
‐ Conservation Management Plan
‐ Activity Plan
‐ Management & Maintenance Plan
Confirming “match” funding
‐ Re-confirming previous financial support
from the Council – once the designs are
more advanced
‐ Discussions with the private sector and other
funders about ways in which they can
support the park
Demonstrating very high levels of community
involvement by evidencing consultation
Submitting the Round 2 application
‐ But this is not just a form to fill in.........It’s a
great opportunity to present the past and
plan for the future
IF THE HLF AWARD IS GRANTED, WHEN MIGHT THE
RESTORATION WORKS START?
Work could start in summer 2012 progressing the
designs with the project being put out to tender by
early 2013. Work on site could be under way from
summer 2013.

Masterplan - Key Proposals
Allende Avenue
Elizabeth Way
1. Spurriers House
2. Pets Corner
3. Bandstand
4. Nursery
Edinburgh Way
5. Demonstration Gardens
6. Water Gardens
7. Paddling Pool
8. Peace Wood
9. Cherry Orchard
10. Newfoundland Gardens
11. Existing Car Parks
12. Proposed Car Parks
Fourth Avenue
Rail
Station
Town
Centre
Allende Avenue
12
12
Netteswell Orchard
11
5
1
2
8
River Stort Valley
11
4
Park Lane
3
7
6
12
School Lane
Mandela Avenue
11
9
School Lane
Netteswell Road
10
Howard
Way
12
RESTORE AND ENHANCE HERITAGE FEATURES
• Pet’s Corner: expand educational and events opportunities
with a new learning room and covered outdoor space,
replace ailing animal housing and restore the original
features such as the duck pond and stables.
• Spurrier’s House: provide a new public cafe on the ground
floor and improve the landscape setting with the removal of
insenstive extensions, restoration of the link to the stables
and the old Lodge.
• Bandstand: restore the building and improve the facilities
to enhance its appearance and security and to increase it’s
viability for small and medium events.
• Horticultural Nursery site: currently derelict this could
become a positive extension to Pet’s Corner as a stores,
growing area for the park and for horticultural training.
• Specimen Gardens: sometimes known as the
Demonstration Gardens, the original role was to show the
first New Town’s residents a range of plants and the art of
gardening. Could be restored and the themes updated to
create an arboretum and a series of 21st century model
gardens.
• Water Gardens: restore the cobbled banks and paths,
expose the water cascade and manage vegetation to
maintain key views towards and from the reflective pools.
• Rhododendron Dell: restore this original flowering valley
garden into a new ‘jewel’ within the park.
• Look-out Hill: provide path to look-out point and undertake
some careful clearance of trees to re-instate views through
to the Water Gardens and distant countryside.
IMPROVE CIRCULATION WITHIN THE PARK
• Provide clear and well defined circular walks around each
character area of the park.
• Establish a new path to link the Railway Station to the Town
Centre across the events ground and towards Spurriers.
• Improve path connections between character areas severed
by Park Lane, School Lane, Netteswell Road and the River
Stort Valley.
• Improve the central spine path from Spurriers House
and Pets Corner to the Paddling Pool through the Water
Gardens and Rhododendron Dell with a pedestrian priority
crossing at Park Lane.
PROVIDE SIGNAGE AND INTERPRETATION
• Wayfinding signs for pedestrians and cyclists indicating the
park’s features and the town’s key destinations.
• Orientation and information points with a map and up-todate
information on events and volunteering opportunities
in the park.
• Educational trails with heritage, health and wildlife themes
with relevant interpretation and information, encouraging
exploration and promoting understanding and knowledge
about the park.
ENCOURAGE ECOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
• Stream course: enhance aquatic habitats through the
Spurrier’s area with re-shaping of banks, removal of some
concrete walls, planting and a natural pond.
• Water Gardens: increase diversity of habitat through careful
clearance, an increased variety of indigenous flora and
management regimes.
• Peace Wood: introduce woodland management techniques
including careful clearance, coppicing, hibernaculas and bird
and bat boxes to encourage a greater variety of fauna and
flora.
• Park-wide: implement wildlife friendly management
techniques such as wildflower mowing regimes, planting and
thinning as part of routine maintenance procedures.
RE-INSTATE HORTICULTURAL INTERESTS AND
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
• Enrich the Specimen Gardens with new plant species
promoting the understanding of our environment ,
biodiveristy and sustainability.
• Provide nursery space for the propagation of plants for the
park and to train horticultural skills.
• Tree and plant labelling in key areas throughout park.
• Provide new purpose -built space within Pets Corner to
sustain the learning needs of school and community groups,
provide social space for community activities and for
volunteer training.

Project Timeline
2010
2011
2012
FEBRUARY
JULY
MAY
AUGUST
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
JULY
ROUND 1 SUBMISSION TO
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND
ROUND 1 FUNDING AWARDED
ROUND 2
TEAM APPOINTED
PROJECT RESEARCH
UNDERWAY
COMMUNITY
CONSULTATION PERIOD
- INITIAL CONCEPTS
DESIGNS FUTHER
DEVELOPED
COMMUNITY
CONSULTATION
ROUND 2 DOCUMENTS
COMPLETED
ROUND 2 HLF
APPLICATION SUBMITTED
NOTIFICATION OF
OUTCOME FROM HLF