Council adopts vision for future of Daventry Town Centre
Council adopts vision for future of Daventry Town Centre
A fresh vision to enhance and improve Daventry town centre over the next 14 years has been adopted by Daventry District Council (DDC).
The Daventry Town Centre Vision 2035 sets out a range of proposals for maximising the town centre’s potential, including the development of new leisure facilities and infrastructure as well as improvements to public spaces.
Its overall aim is to create a green, healthy, vibrant, community-focused town centre that is digitally-connected and entrepreneurial, and respectful of the town’s rich history and heritage.
Developed by DDC and Daventry Town Council in consultation with town residents, local businesses and other stakeholder organisations, the aim of the Vision is to set out a framework to guide investment and aid the town centre’s future development.
Councillors voted to adopt the Vision at DDC’s final meeting of full Council Thursday 18 March, and further recommended the Vision be adopted by the new West Northamptonshire Council, which takes over the running of council services from 1 April.
Some of the proposals contained within the Vision include:
- Building a replacement leisure centre with swimming pools, a sports hall and tennis courts in the Chaucer Way/Brook Street/Waterloo area, known as the North West Arc
- Working with the owners of Bowen Square to remodel the area, creating more outdoor seating and event space, with a small reduction in the number of parking spaces
- Improving landscaping and introduce new play equipment at New Street Recreation Ground while exploring leisure options including a café, public art, a splash play facility and a multi-use games area
- Redeveloping the Police Station and former Magistrates’ Court, and the current leisure centre site, in order to create two mixed-use developments
- Redesigning Market Place to create an attractive space that can be used for markets and events as well as for parking
- Rejuvenating High Street and Sheaf Street by removing unnecessary street clutter, repairing and improving paving, and introducing architectural lighting and high-quality planting where appropriate
- Exploring options to remove or replace the canopy over Foundry Walk, and looking at the possibility of removing of the pagoda from the top of Sheaf Street to create a multi-use events space
- Creating a sustainable transport plan to set out the long-term approach to integrating walking, cycling and public transport infrastructure
- Launching a town-wide e-commerce platform to support and raise the profile of local independent retailers.
The Daventry Town Centre Vision 2035 follows on from the 2021 Vision, which attracted around £50 million of investment into Daventry and delivered a number of schemes including the Abbey Retail Park, the iCon Centre, new education facilities off Ashby Road, and the Mulberry Place cinema and restaurants development.
Work on this new Vision got underway last year and included two rounds of public consultation, giving people the opportunity to make suggestions and share their opinions.
With the pandemic preventing the public events originally planned to give people an opportunity to have their say, the Council’s consultant Troy Planning created an interactive website at daventry2035.com where people could view the plans and complete questionnaires.
Daventry Town Council adopted the Vision at its meeting on Monday 15 March and will work with the new West Northamptonshire Council to deliver it.
