A co-design event transforming Bodmin Town Centre

JTP were engaged by Cornwall Council to create a town-wide Vision for Bodmin using our Charrette process, to help deliver the long-term ambitions for the town, as identified in the Cornwall Local Plan (2016) and the Bodmin 2030 and Beyond Vision (2019). The Charrette was an open invitation community planning and co-design event, held by Cornwall Council, with partners Bodmin Town Council, Bodmin Town Team and Bodmin Chamber of Commerce, and facilitated by JTP.

The event brought the public together in dialogue workshops to openly discuss problems, dreams and solutions for the town centre. The resulting ideas were then further explored in themed hands-on planning sessions and town centre walkabouts facilitated by Charrette team members. Each group reported back to everyone present to ensure the sharing and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Workshops were also held to give young people a chance to give a chance to talk about the site and to draw ideas for the future. Students from Callywith College and Bodmin College took part in themed hands-on planning sessions and also reported back their ideas to the rest of the group.

After two days of public workshops, the JTP team drew up a Vision for the town centre, including an illustrative masterplan, which was presented back to the local community.

Key elements of the Vision included making far more of Bodmin’s unique Cornish cultural and built heritage; co-ordinating visitor attractions to focus on Bodmin and encourage more people into the town centre all year round; reducing the dominance of the car; and generating a diverse and vibrant mix of shops, cafés and residential, community and business uses. Ideas shared also included bringing more greenery into the town centre and creating an accessible network of streets and alleyways with a range of quality places and spaces to explore throughout the day and into the evening.

The Charrette work and illustrative Vision will be used to inform a Town Centre Action Plan and the ‘Reimagining Fore Street’ work, funded by Cornwall Council’s Town Centre Vitality funding and led by the Bodmin Town Team.

The Town Centre Action Plan and Reimagining Fore Street work will use the revenue funding to identify how the ambitions outlined from the Charrette can be delivered and identify ‘meanwhile’ uses to revitalise the town centre. The work will be considered by the Neighbourhood Plan Group, Bodmin Town Council and local Cornwall Councillors. Partners will then work together to develop business cases for individual elements of the scheme which will be used to support future bids for funding.