In 2008 Bournemouth Borough Council embarked on a major public consultation exercise to debate its ‘Town Centre Master Vision’ –a blueprint to enhance the town and enable it to compete more effectively as a distinctive destination in which to work, live or visit.
Petersham Group was appointed to assess development opportunities on behalf of the Council. We staged a series of Stakeholder workshops to identify a range of deliverable development options for three key areas of the town: Pier Approach, the former Winter Gardens and the magnificent Victorian Gardens.
We brought together a raft of innovative development ideas, priorities and themes, into a comprehensive report document that formed the basis of the development master plan adopted by the Council.
Recommendations arising from this master planning exercise have been implemented across the 3 sites, including creating a new events area at the seafront, water play features, landscaping in keeping with the history and geology of the area, new seafront tourism information centre and night-time display lighting, with a total investment of around £4 million.