Consultation Event
Thursday November 07
On Thursday 10th October and Saturday 12th October open public consultations session were held at ‘The Oven’ (135-137 High Street, Dumfries). The local community were invited to come along to view plans and research material from the Feasibility Study into the potential development of 113-115 High Street and 117-119 High Street as part of the Midsteeple Quarter project for Dumfries town centre.
The consultation events were organised and delivered by The Stove Network – an artist-led Community Development Trust for Dumfries. The exhibition material was prepared by architects for the Feasibility Study: Oliver Chapman Architects and the event co-produced with Urban Animation.
The Consultation Event was well attended in person, over the course of the two days 121 people attended. One person saw the coverage on Facebook and jumped on a train from Glasgow to attend the event!
The project team have received additional useful feedback from people who saw the event on social media and were pleased to see the local community participating in the development of this important project for Dumfries.
LIVING ON THE HIGH STREET
One of the most popular interactive panels asked people about living on the High Street, whether this was something they would consider, if so why and if not, why not. There was extensive discussion about the advantages of town centre living – in particular being able to live without a car and proximity to services and shops etc. Also about the security aspect of people overlooking public spaces and how this would make the town feel safer.
OTHER ACTIVITY IN MIDSTEEPLE QUARTER
A wide range of ideas were suggested for the ground floor units proposed within Midsteeple Quarter, below the housing, from support spaces for markets to community workshops and creative workshops/shops/.
There was universal support for the vision of the Quarter as a new housing community set behind the main High Street buildings – with commercial/community units at ground level and new flats above.
The Consultation Event was an important and timely opportunity for the local community to give their opinions and input. The overwhelming response was positive to the masterplan approach for a new community within an existing block of the town centre, on the High Street. People responded very positively to the idea of new, high quality housing, mixed with small scale commercial and community uses at ground floor level. They were also very positive about the approach to maintain the existing street pattern and the Closes in particular and the idea of an inter-generational approach to the housing.
People reacted positively to the general design principles of the detailed proposals for 113-119 High Street – they understood the constraints of the site and existing buildings and how the proposals fitted with the masterplan approach. People liked the mix of housing and commercial uses and the public spaces created by the scheme.
There was also an excellent response to the principle that the Midsteeple Quarter development should be delivered by a community-led organisation and retained with community ownership and control. People were very supportive of the principle of community ownership ‘if the Council were leading this project, it would long since have vanished without trace..’. People were interested and intrigued by the processes of community ownership and well informed about the attempts by MSQ to by 113-119 High St at auction. There was clearly an appetite for and belief in the community’s ability to deliver this project for the town.
Critical feedback centred on the details of the architectural proposals with a concern for new buildings to ‘fit in’ with existing buildings and concern around the provision of lifts and specific detailing for individual needs of different user groups. All of this feedback was noted and taken on board by the project and design teams.
We wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to come along and leave their feedback and give opinions.