Agenda item

Report DRR16/083

The Committee considered a report providing the results of a two year post-scheme evaluation of the public realm improvements to Bromley North Village which focused on assessing the impact of the improvements on businesses and town centre users, particularly bus users.

Public realm improvements to Bromley North Village were a key part of the improvement programme for Bromley Town Centre as set out in the Bromley Town Centre Area Action Plan.  The improvement works to the original scheme area had been substantially completed in November 2014 in accordance with the project timetable, following which additional funding had been secured from Transport for London to extend the scope of the improvement works to include Widmore Road. 

An initial evaluation of the scheme had been undertaken by Regeneris Consulting in February 2015 as part of the Outer London Fund post-scheme evaluation.  This found that the improvement scheme had directly improved the leisure offer in the Bromley North Village area including the promotion of a café culture, and that there had been an increase in the number of high profile lettings and new residential investment in the town centre.  Footfall counts conducted before and after the scheme implementation in High Street North had indicated average increases of 67% in footfall for weekdays and 116% on weekends.  The two year post-scheme evaluation supported these findings and concluded that whilst a number of uplift targets such as the creation of new jobs were yet to be met, there had been a number of positive signs regarding footfall and vacancy rates.  A number of learning points had also been identified for the delivery of future projects including the scale of delivery, officer resource, delivery structures, business communication, target setting and ongoing project monitoring.

The Chairman noted that the initial evaluation of the scheme had taken place in February 2015 and requested that in future, details of any initial evaluations be provided to the Committee when available in addition to the longer term post-scheme evaluations, and that the full post-completion report be provided to Members when available.  It was also requested that an update be provided to Members around the number of jobs created and secured by the public realm improvements following the meeting.

Members generally discussed the impact of bus stops that had been moved as a result of the scheme and whether additional bus stops could be installed in the Market Square to encourage the flow of pedestrian traffic through the town centre, potentially with a change of use of the Bromley North Village taxi rank.  Feedback from town centre users gathered as part of the evaluation process had been mixed with 36% supporting the new location of the bus stops with 31% against.  It was noted that there had been no loss of parking through the scheme and that there had been an increase in loading bays.

In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Renewal confirmed that work was being undertaken with Environment and Community Services to arrange an enhanced cleaning package for Bromley town centre, and that this would be considered by Environment PDS Committee in January 2017.  A planning application would shortly be submitted to introduce measures to direct traffic exiting The Hill car park through Bromley High Street and maximise the use of the area.  Local colleges had also been approached for proposals to refresh the murals in the area.

RESOLVED that the evaluation report and outcomes of the delivered public realm improvements to Bromley North Village be noted.