Local people were needed to set out proposals for the long-term future of Brixton Central and to help guide the consultation with the the wider public. Between February and June we
The Local Reference Group
The Local Reference Group acts as a sounding board for the development of the Brixton Central Masterplan Development Brief. The reference group has grown out of a series of individual and group meetings that Fluid held with local people and organisations to understand people’s priorities for the town centre.
Two Reference Group meetings have been held, with workshops exploring themes around potential land use, viability considerations and community benefits, as well as potential locations for different town centre activities across the Brixton Central area.
Presentations from the workshops can be downloaded here: Presentation_080414_reduced size
These events have involved many passionate and exciting discussions and you can read about some of the issues in the comments on this blog. The report below looks at what people have said and feeds this in to the development of the masterplan proposals.
Summary report - June 2014
AECOM and Fluid have been appointed by Lambeth Council and Network Rail to work with local people and stakeholders to co-produce a masterplan and a development brief for Brixton Central. This will help guide growth and change in an important part of the town centre.
Many of the stakeholders held lengthy “one-to-one” meetings with Fluid prior to joining the local ‘Reference Group’. This helped to brief the deign team on a range of issues and perspectives regarding the town centre, and to discuss the co-production process ahead of the workshops.
To-date, we have completed key stakeholder interviews, held two Reference Group Workshops (on 27/3/14 and 3/4/14, see above), coordinated “community narratives” from key local spokespersons and identified a growing project contact list of local groups/organisations and individuals (currently over 200) who are kept informed of progress.
During Reference Group Workshops, we were able to discuss potential mixes of use for the town centre while keeping an eye on balancing community benefits with commercial viability. Most participants agreed on a mix of housing (market and affordable), retail (chains and independents), and places for making as well as trading, and spaces for young people and skill swapping.
At the second workshop participants were able to locate the selected uses and generally, the prevailing view was that the arches could contain retail, creative workspace (including business startups) and covered markets with housing above. The old Ice Rink site could contain community & civic facilities with housing on upper levels, and International House could be redeveloped or retrofitted for housing or employment use.
A ‘Co-production strategy’ update report is available here. A more detailed stage 2 report covering “Co-production Strategy” will be available in due course.
In July, further community consultation will take place to discuss masterplan options for the town centre through a combination of a Reference Group Workshop, public drop-in exhibition and pop-up events.
