Plans for Victoria Gardens in Station Road

Victoria Gardens drawingBiddulph Town Council are investigating a scheme to improve the area around the Victoria Centre adjacent to the Sainsbury’s store.

At present the scheme is in Concept Design Stage looking at improvements that could be made to the gardens.

Funds to pay for the scheme would come from £60,000 of Section 106 money given to the Town Council to carry out works in the area left over from the development of Sainsbury’s Store. This money will have to be given back to Sainsbury’s with interest if not expended by the 2018 deadline. 

Currently there is a truncated road in the park which is owned by Sainsbury’s, the remainder of the park is owned by the Town Council.

Local architects, BP Architecture, have been asked to come up with scheme proposals with and without this road area being retained. The final scheme to be taken forward was to depend on whether Sainsbury’s were prepared to allow the road area to be incorporated into the scheme. The Town Council have now been advised that Sainsbury’s are willing to incorporate the road having seen the scheme proposals.

The scheme proposals which were presented at a meeting of the Civic Committee of the Town Council include areas of paving that can be used by the community, for Town Council functions, Festival Events, and Family Fun Days.

The Architects also looked at the inclusion of a monument to Biddulph’s mining past, as well as the potential for a fountain; and have produced a scheme that incorporates a Mining Memorial Obelisk as a focal point, an Information Plaque telling Biddulph’s mining story, areas of contrasting paving, and some ground based fountains that can be turned on and off for special events, that people can play in and provide a ‘fun’ element.

The scheme also features a number of seating areas to allow people to sit in the park, and planting beds and footpath improvements. The proposals would retain a ‘Y’ turning head to allow vehicles that drive down Station Road to turn around.

The Council were in favour of the proposals and felt that subject to detail design and costs the larger scheme should be favoured.

As scheme proposals now have Sainsbury’s agreement the Town Council are now discussing moving onto detailed design stages; when more detailed proposals would be put together, including materials specification and pricing, as well as looking at services requirements, and long term maintenance requirements.

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