2005 Top Priorities

The feedback from Stage One of the Billingham Town Centre consultation showed residents, businesses and visitors had ten top priorities for the regeneration of the Town Centre.

These were to:

improve the quality of shops
extend the range of shops
provide new and better toilets
increase the number of shops
provide secure car parking
incorporate cafes and restaurants
ensure play facilities e.g. pre-school, teenage
tackle problems from pests/pigeons
include attractive landscaping
demolish Forum House and La Ronde

During the Lock out Agreement, Halladale incorporated all of these issues into initial, broad concepts for Billingham Town Centre as a starting point for future designs.

The designs formed part of the second stage of consultation, which was used to assess whether the comments from phase one had been fully incorporated by Halladale. The design principles focused on:

Potential refurbishment of the East Precinct
Rebuilding of parts of Queensway to improve the standard of retail units available to attract key national and local retailers in order to offer a wide range of businesses
New landscaping, paving, lighting and street furniture to improve the environment
New modern toilets, crèche and access facilities alongside secure car parking on the first floor of Queensway
A large national supermarket at the eastern end of the town centre adjacent to the Forum, balanced with two large anchor stores at the western end to ensure an increased footfall throughout the whole town centre

The executive summary of the Phase One Consultation is available to download at the bottom of this page.

Progress

We have already started to address the top regeneration priorities with the demolition of Forum House and La Ronde, which was completed in 2006, and has undoubtedly changed the visual amenity of Billingham Town Centre.

In addition the terms of the sale of the Town Centre ensure that Halladale are obliged to address the top regeneration priorities (excluding 'increasing the number of shops') within future regeneration plans for the Town Centre