Bodmin Town Centre Charrette

Project type:	Community Planning
Location:	Cornwall, UK
Client:	Cornwall Council
Stage:	Community Planning

Around 350 people from the local community took part in the Bodmin Town Centre Charrette from Friday 18 to Tuesday 22 March 2022 to create a new Vision for Bodmin Town Centre. The summary Vision broadsheet can be viewed here and the full Vision presentation can be viewed here in two parts: Part 1 Community Engagement and Part 2 Vision for Bodmin Town Centre.

The Charrette was an open invitation community planning and co-design event, held by Cornwall Council, with partners Bodmin Town Council, Bodmin Town Team and Bodmin Chamber of Commerce, and facilitated by JTP. Residents and local stakeholders shared their local knowledge and ideas through a series of workshops, walkabouts and hands-on planning groups.

After two days of public workshops, the JTP team drew up a Vision for the town centre, including an illustrative masterplan, which was presented back to the local community on Tuesday 22 March at Shire House Suite.

Artist’s impression of Fore Street looking east

Key elements of the Vision for the town centre include making far more of Bodmin’s unique Cornish cultural and built heritage; co-ordinating the array of visitor attractions to focus on Bodmin and encourage more people into the town centre all year round; reducing the dominance of the car in Fore Street and generating a diverse and vibrant mix of shops, cafes and residential, community and business uses; bringing more greenery into the town centre and improve the look of buildings and shopfronts; creating an accessible network of streets and alleyways with a range of quality places and spaces to linger and enjoy through the day and into the evening, and; improving local education, skills training and job opportunities for the local community.

Artist’s impression of the Market House on Fore Street

The Charrette work and illustrative Vision will be used to inform a Town Centre Action Plan and the Reimagining Fore Street work, funded by Cornwall Council’s Town Centre Vitality funding and led by the Bodmin Town Team.

“

If we all have the same vision, it’s a way to move forward!

Local resident

The Town Centre Action Plan and Reimagining Fore Street work will use the revenue funding to identify how the ambitions outlined from the Charrette can be delivered and identify ‘meanwhile’ uses to revitalise the town centre. The work will be considered by the Neighbourhood Plan Group, Bodmin Town Council and local Cornwall Councillors. Partners will then work together to develop business cases for individual elements of the scheme which will be used to support future bids for funding.

Background
Previous work has identified growth and place priorities for Bodmin. This work was informed by earlier consultations and is outlined in the Cornwall Local Plan and the associated Site Allocations document. The Bodmin 2030 and Beyond Vision, which was launched in 2019, identifies the long-term ambitions for the town as ‘an attractive, thriving town centre which has evolved into a community hub offering a variety of daytime and evening meeting places and experiences as well as retail opportunities.’