focus on basingstoke
Kate Dean, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s project director (Basing View and commercial) talks to John Burbedge about ...
Changing old perceptions with 21st century reality
Kate Dean laughed off my 1970s ‘doughnut city’ description of Basingstoke with its many roundabouts as the hackneyed 20th century perception that it is – especially with a projected borough-wide £4 billion investment programme underway that will transform it into an enviable 21st century place in which to live and work.
Those 1970s roundabouts were the infrastructure-designed solution for the travel needs of a new town chosen to house London overspill. And as Dean remarked: “They are still a feature of Basingstoke, but traffic does flow incredibly well. Getting from the M3 to the town centre takes just a few minutes, whereas in other southern towns motorway access can be a major obstacle. And, together with the Enterprise M3 LEP, we have now got a £30 million programme to upgrade infrastructure on Basingstoke’s key A-road gateways.”
Dean sees Basingstoke as very much a southern Thames Valley town, which also happens to be really accessible to the M3 and the Solent business economy. “Our business occupier make-up at the moment
is predominantly tech and digital, so with like-minded businesses wanting to cluster together, perhaps there’s also a natural leaning towards Reading.”
The coming decades will see major new office, housing, retail and leisure developments built in Basingstoke’s heartland, together creating another historic growth step-change for the town following that baby-boom era population hike.
Actually, tangible modern change has already begun in Basingstoke, with the Black Dam roundabout recently ‘upcycled’ with a fresh design. “We have had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from residents and businesses in terms of their journey improvement,” Dean noted.
Then there is a new £50m Network Rail regional operating and national training centre at Basing View, plus the arrival of the largest combined John Lewis at Home and Waitrose store in the country, and last year’s acquisition of Festival Place by AEW Europe with its plans to improve tenant mix and enhance the shopping experience.
But three very large capital project-areas are the bright future towards 2050 for Basingstoke:
• New and refurbished business space at Basing View – the town’s central business district near its railway station
• New well-designed homes, with good facilities and infrastructure at Manydown, effectively creating a fresh urban community
• New attractions and revitalised leisure facilities, including a designer outlet centre, in a £250 million redevelopment of Basingstoke Leisure Park
“The three projects are very much strategic, inter-playing on each other in order to deliver on all fronts of work, rest, and play. It’s about providing a holistic work and lifestyle balance for residents in the town and hopefully new residents and businesses attracted by the delivery of all these projects,” explained Dean.
This triple step-change programme started in 2009, suggests Dean, when the council began looking for a joint venture partner for the redevelopment of Basing View, which is seen as playing a critical future role in the economic development of the borough.
Basing View: In-town amenities with out-of-town ease of access
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council owns this 65-acre town-centre business zone, which is largely long-term leased to head lessees. The council took action by committing a £2.3m investment kickstart to regeneration and appointed award-winning Muse Developments as its lead development partner. Funding partners for the Basing View regeneration are being identified on a project- by-project basis.
The project masterplan includes a mix of new office space, a business-class hotel, residential
Basing View
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businessmag.co.uk
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2016
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