Pocket park just part of bigger plan

THE town centre is really important to Cheltenham’s prosperity. We’ve weathered the change in retail habits much better than other places.

We’re changing things up, driving forward the Minster Exchange development with innovative local businesspeople.

The Christmas Market and Ice Rink are bringing in more people too. Taco Bell is on the way and the Regent Arcade has brought Decathlon, the Tivoli cinema and JD Sports in recent weeks. But there’s more to be done.

That’s why we were proud to announce an important project: a new pocket park around the Clarence Fountain. Going back a couple of years, some temporary changes were put in around the Fountain as part of the Transport Plan.

That included some seating, which was very popular.

However, it also included some artificial grass that was not popular.

In 2019 the trial transport plan came to an end and the road reopened. The county council then completed traffic calming works. At that point, the borough council was able to plan to remove the temporary items and put in place a permanent upgrade. Last week, designs for the new pocket park in the area were made public.

The aim is to create an area which is green, accessible for all, gives people places to sit and rest, is durable and looks attractive.

The scheme will make the area greener, with trees and shrubs.

They’ll help soak up water on rainy days and keep the area cool in summer too.

The design includes places for wheelchairs to slot in alongside the seats. More seats have been included to give people places to meet friends, rest and eat and drink.

The design and materials should improve the look of the area immeasurably, while enabling it to accommodate the thousands and thousands of people using the space every year.

I’m told there are a myriad of utility pipes underneath the Fountain plinth. So even though the site is small, it might be more complicated than it looks.

Even so, we hope that the new pocket park will be in place in April. Just in time for the good weather. Councillor Max Wilkinson Oakley