Agenda item

To receive an update on the Salisbury Maltings Development.

 

Officer: Richard Walters, Head of Service – Major Projects

 

 

Richard Walters, Head of Major Projects gave an update on the Maltings Development. Focusing principally on the emerging Maltings Masterplan with a brief update at the end of the presentation on the Hotel / Library application.  

 

It had been agreed that the Area Board would play a central role in the Consultation process for the Maltings regeneration. Since the last Area Board meeting officers had been working to keep members informed and involved and agreed to provide this update to the public meeting. 

  

I am here to share information on the emerging Maltings Masterplan on which formal consultation will commence next month. 

 

This was the first time that these plans had been shown in public and they were being presented in advance of the formal commencement of the Masterplan Consultation scheduled for 15^th April.

 

The plans and images shown may change and evolve between now and then so it was requested that they be viewed as a ‘work in progress’ rather than the definitive article.    

 

It had always been intended that development of the Maltings regeneration area be guided by a Masterplan.

 

Various draft plans had been prepared by the Council’s development partners and in some cases presented to the community, but as market conditions had changed and uncertainties increased these have become out of date and undeliverable. 

 

Funding and delivery pressures had meant that the initial application for Phase 1 – the Hotel and Library on the former BHF block has had to come forward in the absence of a contextualising Masterplan, which had been an issue in the consultation feedback.

 

The Council had therefore with the agreement and support of its development partner accelerated its own masterplan that would be consulted upon at the same time as revised plans are submitted for the hotel and library.

 

It will provide that wider framework and address the major issues relevant to the delivery of future phases in the wider maltings area.

 

Key amongst these were the management of flood risk and the delivery of high quality public realm alongside commercially deliverable development.

 

The issue of flooding in particular had been key as the latest evidence from the Environment Agency shows that the flood risk to large parts of Salisbury City Centre were greatly increased. 

 

The team had been working closely with the EA in the development of the draft masterplan that seeks to find a way to address this and incorporate flood mitigation measures into the overall design solution, making the development resilient and part of the wider strategy for flood risk mitigation across the wider city.

 

A slide shown, identified the principal design principles that underpin the masterplan. Some were long standing aspirations that had been articulated for many years, such as the desire to see an enhanced Creative / Cultural quarter.

 

Others were driven by known constraints and issues and come out of engagement with consultees such as flooding, highways and conservation.

 

There were also commercial considerations, such as the need to create a flexible framework that could respond to rapidly evolving market conditions and safeguard the city’s economic vitality.

 

By applying the design principles and looking at existing character of the site, logical zones emerge. These had shaped the master plan process

 

By moving the library the walk way of Market Walk could be realigned and we can take that opportunity to introduce a major new pedestrian boulevard into the heart of Salisbury from the Market Place to the Cultural Quarter. This could include:

•       Boulevard planting and street furniture to delineate the route and provide user experience

•       New retail, commercial arcade at market walk with development above – a ‘grand arcade’

•       Potential dedicated space for significant new public art to symbolise the City’s resilience.

•       Kiosks on the market place when market is not trading to add vibrancy, visual interest

 

The Green Spine & Visitor Welcome Experience most important element was that it would mitigates increased flood risk but also provide a brilliant opportunity for enhanced public access to the river:

 

•       Main walking/cycling route to town

•       New tourist welcome building with picnic area and clear directions to town via new path

•       Urban feel towards the Town Centre with informal seating and café culture

•       Areas of interaction with the water matched by areas of non contact to conserve ecology (management)

•       Part of a much wider green spine from the Avon Valley in North to Water meadows in the south, creating a green corridor through the middle of the City

 

Commercial development at the heart:

 

•       Flexible commercial uses to respond to changing market demands

•       Retail, food, drink, entertainment – possibly a new cinema – vibrant riverside area

•       Residential city centre apartment living above

•       Wrapped car parking for in excess of 1000 short term spaces to support city centre economy. Shoppers parking

•       Phased development to be delivered as and when agreements reached with lease holders. Phase one – key to unlocking this is the BHF building

 

Library / Hotel application update

 

•       Application Submitted December 2018

•       Revisions being prepared in response to consultation.

•       Floorspace to increase in revised plans

•       Re-consultation once revisions issued

•       In parallel with Masterplan

•       Library service – consultation on-going

 

The revised plans increase the floorspace significantly.  The proposed new library on the submitted application is  5,983 sq.ft.  It is planned to increase this  to 9,028 sq.ft. This exceeds in size the existing ground floor at  Market Walk which is 7,319 sq.ft.  

 

 

Timescale

 

The current planned timetable for key events on the masterplan and application were presented as;

 

Update to Area Board – 28^th March 

Consultation on masterplan – 15^th April to 24^th May

Public consultation event (at Guildhall)  - 23^rd April (tbc)

Salisbury Area Board – update presentation on initial findings – 16^th May

Revised plans for Library / Hotel issued – post 15^th April (tbc)

Further consultation period on revised plans – 15^th April to 24^th May (tbc)

Consideration of application at Strategic Planning Committee – 13^th June

Consideration of masterplan at Strategic planning committee – 13^th June

 

Questions and comments included:

 

• You will need to take on board that 5,000 members of public signed a petition to say they were unhappy with the way you applied for Phase 1 before telling people. As soon as its possible please share the plans through the Area Board.
• How did you gain the additional space for library? Answer: The floor plan shows the green area, which is still the gym, but there was a proposed A3 (food and beverage) unit on the corner, that had been incorporated along with the  service corridor into the proposed library.
• What was the timescale for finished end result? Answer: The masterplan would be a document that has been consulted on. Hope to get that to committee in June 2019.  The delivery of the planned phases will depend on market conditions. We hope the Cultural Quarter would be delivered as an early phase but this will be dependent upon a number of factors including the time it takes to develop specific proposals and the availability of funding
• The last application had been proven to have been submitted in haste. The Library proposal was 30% the size of what we have now, so we would not get the same services. We have the second busiest Library in the south west. Answer: the reasons for the need to submit the application before the masterplan are linked to funding deadlines and have been explained.  There size of the proposed library has increased and there are no plans to  reduce services.  There is on-going consultation with the Library service on how it will use the new modern space to deliver its services.
• We are grateful you are extending the consultation on the library proposals. I was one of those who originally signed the vision statement. Lovely ideas, but the issue is the deliverability. Is it still the case that there would be no public-sector money going in to this or had Wiltshire Council provided substantial funds toward this? What commercial interest has been shown? Where would the new permanent library be in this scheme? What guarantee have people got that there will be a library in the short term and the long term? Answer: We have secured £6.1m of government funding to support the regeneration of the Maltings, that is expected to go into the dev of the improvements to the market walk area and the wider public realm and help make the overall scheme viable.  The Hotel and Library scheme is funded by the developer, the council will take the library space as part of the scheme. There was a time limit associated with that funding which was why we put the application in when we did. We have sought to provide a flexible framework as much as possible to enable these developments to happen. We cannot predict the economic conditions. We have commitment to fund the new library. The existing library was full of asbestos so to make a transformational change to this building to meet modern library standards cannot realistically be done without getting everybody out.
• What was the relationship between this piece of work and that with Tibbalds? Answer: The Tibbalds work is a wider area development framework that covers the whole of the city centre. It is expected to define where investment can take place and how to overcome potential barriers to delivery. The two need to dovetail together and not contradict each other. They are two separate docs, doing 2 separate things, both providing a more clear plan for the future economic vitality of the city.
• The arts cinema and the commercial cinema, I don’t believe the Odeon would survive with a second cinema. With the parking plans can you assure us that there will not be a height restriction to enable the market traders to park centrally? Answer: This needs to be clarified.  We are aware of  interest in the city for a new modern multiplex cinema and we understand that there is the potential to support two cinemas that would be targeted at different markets, such as an Arts cinema.  The recovery plan for the city looks to support the visitor economy and the entertainment and leisure offer of which cinemas form an important part.   
• Wiltshire creative was seeking a significant sum of funding, when would we know the progress of their work? Answer: Their work is on-going.  It is not possible to pre-judge the outcome at this stage.
• BID – The master plan is far more imaginative than what we have seen before, we deserve a really good development, there are concerns that we have been talking about this for so long, will we get anything in time to spend that money before the timescale runs out and we have to return it? Answer: Yes there is a plan the Council has been working on with its partners in government to ensure that if the grant money cannot be spent on this particular project within the timescales then it will not be lost.    

 

There is a consultation period – We would be grateful if as many of you as possible can contribute.