Exciting Town, Exciting Project, Exciting Prospect…..

Cirencester Town Council, through the Cirencester Development Partnership, in delivering the Community Plan ‘Our Future Cirencester’ announces that it has appointed SKM Colin Buchanan, www.skmcolinbuchanan.com, to design and cost the Cirencester Town Centre Regeneration project.

We also welcome the local connection within the SKM Colin Buchanan team, through Portus+Whitton LLP, Archaeology and Planning Solutions and Magna Chartered Surveyors. Colin Buchanan is a leading transport planning, urban design and economics consultancy founded by Professor Sir Colin Buchanan in 1964. Colin Buchanan has since joined SKM in June 2011. Sinclair Knight Merz is a leading projects firm, with global capability in strategic consulting, design and delivery.

Towards the end of 1960, Professor Sir Colin Buchanan was instructed by Ernest Marples, the then Minister of Transport, to study and report on the growing problems of accommodating traffic in towns and cities. Published in 1963 the result was the seminal report, ‘Traffic in Towns’, widely regarded to be the starting point of modern transportation planning. Sir Colin and his team were the first to recognise that most transport issues cannot be solved by transport analysis alone, and that wider analysis is required, employing a variety of disciplines.  In 1964 Colin Buchanan and Partners Limited was founded, taking this fundamental link between planning and transport as its ethos.

Portus + Whitton LLP (P+W) are a long established firm of landscape architects. They have been based in the Cotswolds since 1984 and in Cirencester since 1998. P+W has practiced Landscape and Urban Design in a range of specialist areas including masterplanning major new developments, tourism related work and the design of historically sensitive and contemporary landscapes. P+W’s strength lies in identifying the essential character and potential of each location and in working closely with the client and other stakeholders to develop imaginative and practical ideas.

Martin Portus, Partner in P+W, will lead the Urban Design of the project. He has worked on many sensitive historic design projects which required careful historical analysis and high quality design solutions. Martin has also been a Landscape Consultant to The Cabinet Office for various projects in Whitehall. He has over many years been involved in numerous Community Planning projects in his home town of Cirencester and is currently Chairman of the Cirencester Civic Society, a registered charity that works to protect and enhance the built environment.

In Cirencester, since the late 1960’s discussions have taken place, and draft drawings prepared, for improving the Market Place in Cirencester. The scheme, now included within the Community Plan, is important in terms of economic regeneration, including tourism and the local economy, notwithstanding the sustainable transport issues and looking towards improved safety and minimising future highway maintenance costs.

The scheme is also a fundamental aspect of the District Council’s Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document and is included within the County Council’s Local Transport Plan 3 (LTP3) as a developer/third party funded scheme.

In having taken the lead and the initiative on this project, Cirencester Town Council is delighted to be commissioning the design and costing phase. We are now a step closer to the fruition of this aspiration and will be able to plan effectively for the medium-term delivery of the scheme once we have an agreed and costed design.

Independent shops, Individual food, Incredible history.

For further information Email: info@cirencester.gov.uk