THE FUTURE OF THE HIGH STREET
Finally a face forWaterloo? Council decides on car park design
After a lengthy public consultation – that at one stage looked like it had decided nothing – Cotswold District Council has chosen a preferred design for Cirencester’s new car park. A new design that appears to be significantly different to the three designs originally shortlisted by the council was presented to residents and businesses at an open forum at the end of November. It is a modified version of the Aluminium and Stone design by Cambridgeshire-based architects PCH Associates – the design that was not the most popular in the public consultation. Three bold and rather grandiosely-named designs were put forward to public consultation by Cotswold District Council in July. Despite 1,200 people taking part in the consultation and picking the Wooden Weave design by BDP architects as the winner, the council decided not to immediately progress with that design. They did decide that the design with the fewest votes, the Hare and Mosaic design by AHR Architects should be eliminated from the process.
would work in reality and to take on board comments from the consultation process. Following those meetings, the council decided that PCH, the designers of the Aluminium and Stone scheme would be their chosen partners - but that their design needed significant tweaks. A new façade for the car park has been designed in response to feedback that called for ‘breaking up the mass’ of the structure. Recesses have been introduced to the elevations, green walls have been added and subtler colours have been used in the metal façade. Those designs were presented at the November meeting, while there was also a presentation from a consultant from The Environment Partnership. That detailed the work that would be undertaken to understand the impact of building a multi-storey car park in the town. The potential impact on air quality, noise, light and traffic measures were discussed, as were the measures that could be taken to mitigate those impacts. Work has already
started on some of the archaeological work that needs to be done on the site of the car park, given Cirencester’s rich Roman history. Trenching work by Historic England began in September to survey the site to ensure that no significant remains lie beneath the surface l
They also took great relief in the fact that of the 1,200 people consulted 83 per cent agreed to the idea of expanding the existing Waterloo Car Park to a multi-storey and creating 347 more spaces. The architects of the two remaining designs then met with the council to discuss how their designs
88 | December 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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