Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Could trees screen ‘ugly’ city car parks from public view?
Council chiefs have suggested planting trees around the edge of Canterbury’s car parks in an effort to hide them from open view.
A number of ideas to manage conservation in the city have been drawn up by the authority as it plans ways to improve and preserve the area.
Longport, St Radigund’s, Watling Street and Pound Lane are among the host of car parks under consideration for natural screening.
As well as improving the aesthetics of the city, council leader Ben Fitter-harding says the trees will boost sustainability.
“At the moment they are just huge expanses of Tarmac that don’t do anything other than provide space for parking,” he said.
“They can be more than that, and be properly landscaped or have PV panels installed to become sustainable.
“We’re thinking of ways to soften car parks and ways to carbon capture.”
Cllr Fitter-harding says there “will always be car parks” in the city, but he hopes to develop the sites to become thriving hubs for sustainability for future generations.”
A draft Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan has been written by officers ahead of the report going out to public consultation for residents to share their views.
The 300-page document discusses how proposals can further safeguard the city’s World
Heritage Status, and improve Canterbury’s aesthetics.
The report states: “There are opportunities to enhance the conservation area by making appropriate changes to surface car parking, either through new development or landscaping.
“New development could be used to integrate parking or conceal it from the street by restoring a built frontage.
“Planting could also be used to soften and partly screen car parks.
“Longport car park is an area of opportunity for enhancement as this site, highly visible at a busy junction, could be improved visually by sensitive screening or more permanently by new development where appropriate.”
Other conservation methods mentioned in the report include relocating a number of “prominent” broadband cabinets from clear view and transferring unsightly cabling underground.
Decluttering the approach to the city along Wincheap is one vision being considered.
“Views along this historic approach to the city, which are currently cluttered by telephone masts and cables, would be better revealed and appreciated by burying cables below ground,” the report reads.
Returning modern shopfronts and signage to more traditional designs, repainting run-down buildings, and enhancing public realm areas are other proposals put forward by the council.
Members sitting on the authority’s policy committee will discuss the plans at a meeting next Wednesday, before they go out to public consultation.