Bury But Better 2009.pdf - Urbed

Introduction 1.Report by: URBED with ELF RegenerationSince the completion of the Bury Town CentreVision and Development Strategy in 2003 (alsoknown as ‘The Bury But Better’ study), BuryCouncil have received a number of planningapplications and pre-planning enquiries forsites either within the immediate town centreof Bury or within the so-called ‘outer ring’. Inaddition, a number of other sites will be availablein the near future, such as the Police DivisionalHeadquarters, Peel Health Centre, Craig House,Lester House, Humphrey House and possiblyBury College (Woodbury site).Since early 2003 developers ThornfieldProperties have progressed on their site atThe Rock, the new access road is in place andconstruction work is well under way for themixed-used retail-led scheme to open for trade in2010. Ask, in joint partnership with Bury Council(Askbury), have cleared their site at Townsideduring the summer and a mixed-use schemeincluding offices, a health centre and a hotel isbeing constructed.The current introduction of significant futureretail provision, the continuing developerinterest in Bury and the availability of large plotsof land in and near the town centre createdthe need for an updated masterplan, whichwill - most importantly - inform the CouncilsLocal Development Framework and guide newdevelopment over the next 10 - 15 years.This report is structured into two parts. In PartOne we look at Bury’s socio-economic profiletoday and how this compares to the originalstudy, assess the current market situation andprovide a detailed transport assessment. All ofwhich will provide an essential input into theupdated masterplan for the town centre.Part Two recaptures the 2003 Vision andMasterplan for Bury Town Centre and describesthe outcome of the stakeholder workshop held inJuly 2008. We then deal with each of Bury’s quartersdescribing the changes and actions taken since thepublication of the 2003 Vision and DevelopmentStrategy. This also gives us the opportunity todiscuss the merits of projects that have beenimplemented outside the report recommendationsand to look at a number of proposals presently inthe pipeline. For each quarter we include an updatedproposals plan. This then leads us to the updatedDevelopment Strategy and Masterplan which issummarised in the Project Matrix at the end of thisdocument.Facing page: the Townside Fieldsscheme under construction (June2008);This page:left: The Square;below: The Rock.