Why March?
The purpose of our visit was to take a close look at what had been achieved by a regeneration project focussing on the Broad Street, riverside, Market Place and Acre Road areas of March. Costing approximately £8.4 million, the programme of works was the result of a successful application made in 2019 by Fenland District Council to the ‘Future High Streets’ transformation fund.
Councillor Chris Seaton (Fenland District Council) spoke of
…how important it is to build… better high streets, support local businesses, improve the public realm and celebrate pride in local communities. We want to make March a vibrant, destination town [our emphasis] where people want to live, work and visit.
Does this sound familiar?
What’s been done in March?
We were all really impressed by what we saw and discussed with Matt Wright (project co-ordinator) and local councillor Jan French. Their programme shares a number of similarities with MR4P’s vision for improvements to the Mill Road public realm (reduced congestion, improved air quality, better access for people with disabilities etc.) but it’s not identical.
Motorised vehicles, for example, continue to use Broad Street as a through route because there’s no other crossing over the River Nene in the town. However, a naturally slow and steady flow of traffic is the result of the road engineering; there’s now no parking in the centre, although there are four free car parks nearby. Interestingly, this improves ‘dwell time’: if shoppers park a little outside the centre, they’re more likely to spend longer, and spend more money, in local shops and cafes.
Lessons Learned
In brief, significant ‘take aways’ from our visit included, in no particular order:
- Streetscaping looks and feels much better when it uses natural materials and when it takes account of drainage needs, underground water storage reduces rapid runoff
- Matt Wright strongly recommends that planners/ co-ordinators should not ‘harvest’ opinions from stakeholders but should instead focus on explaining the advantages of proposed developments
- Local businesses should be supported in improving their shop environments, whilst at the same time being expected to take ownership of development projects.
- Accessibility considerations must be integral to the development process. During our visit, we noticed a good number of people using mobility scooters, buggies etc. benefiting from an excellent, clutter-free and low stress environment
- Particular attention should be paid to heritage features- in the case of March, these included the March fountain and war memorial
- The involvement and support of local politicians is crucial in ensuring the success of improvements to the public realm.
What’s Next – for Mill Road?
Although the ‘Future High Streets’ funding has now finished, there are a number of other potential sources of funding. We will continue to put pressure on the people who represent us to fight Mill Road’s corner. The population of March is approximately 21,000. The combined population of Petersfield, Coleridge and Romsey in 2019 was 26,358.
You can read about our ideas for a transformed Mill Road here.