Decision details

Keynsham Town Centre acts as a local service centre offering retail, leisure and sporting facilities as well as employment opportunities for the immediate and surrounding population. The public realm improvements to Keynsham's retail core will be designed to safeguard and enhance the town’s status as a socio economic hub. The improvements are proposed to increase attractiveness and accessibility of Keynsham High Street through a number of key interventions:

• Enhancing the quality of the built environment through upgrading footway materials;
• Co-ordinating the provision of street furniture, signage & wayfinding.
• Improving perceptions of safety & security through lighting provision.
• Increasing accessibility for all residents through provision of pedestrian, cycle and bus friendly infrastructure.
• Rationalising parking and delivery arrangements whilst retaining and enhancing disabled parking provision.

The project aims to create a high quality well connected public space to encourage & enhance retail and other economic activity, improve accessibility by sustainable transport modes and increase the number of journeys to the High Street by theses modes.

Town centres nationally are facing significant challenges in the form of increased online shopping, an over reliance on retail premises and reduced footfall which all threaten the vitality and viability. Evidence from professional & industry bodies case studies shows that public realm intervention and accessibility improvements have a positive impact on footfall, consumer expenditure and economic performance.

The scheme is required to enable B&NES to meet its corporate objectives to support economic growth and improve air quality in Keynsham, the latter of which is also a legal obligation.

It is expected to stem the perceived decline in footfall, business turnover and employment in the High Street as reported in the business consultation, but also enhance the High Street’s economic contribution to the local economy.

A complementary scheme will be managed alongside the main scheme and will focus on improving publicly accessible private land which is adjacent to the High Street, in order to create a cohesive broader scheme that attracts the greatest active mode travel benefits.
This project forms part of the wider improvement programme for the High Street. Other interventions may take place in the future depending on availability of funding.

Consultation took place with stakeholders (including ward members, the Keynsham Town Council and special interest groups in the town) in November 2018. New ward and Cabinet members are being briefed on the benefits of the scheme.

A public consultation event took place alongside the Local Plan consultation and a survey was available for completion online and in the library. Draft proposals were presented and the feedback received lead to a preferred design. The scheme was approved by Cabinet in February 2019.

WECA approved £1.5m for the project on the 14th June 2019. At this meeting, Councillor Wait (Keynsham East) said that these improvements would make Keynsham a more vibrant and successful town.

To fully approve capital amounting to £1,743k (£1.500k WECA funding, 193k Charlton Park Highway contribution S106 & £50k towns & local centres CIL) from the provisional capital programme item Keynsham High Street Public Realm Scheme.

A range of options for delivery of public realm improvements across different areas of the town centre were considered. Due to the amount of funding available for this phase, a decision was made to focus on the High Street and also deliver some small improvements to other adjacent areas (Civic Centre & Temple Street).

Enhancing the public realm mainly in the High Street was the best performing and preferred option as it would deliver the most benefits for the money available.