Nottingham City Council has thanked all those who took part in the Broadmarsh Big Conversation, and pledged to keep local people involved in the future redevelopment of the area following the announcement of the Broadmarsh Advisory Group.
In two months, over 3,000 people responded with around 13,000 comments to the online survey with their ideas for the former Broadmarsh Centre site. Alongside submissions through the Broadmarsh Big Conversation website, the council presented the Big Conversation to local business groups, such as Creative Quarter and Nottingham Partners, schools, Nottingham College, Primary Parliament, independent professional firms such as architects, landscape architects and urban designers and received significant submissions from The Nottingham Project, the Green Quarter proposals and the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.
Work is underway across the City Council and Broadmarsh Advisory Group to look through the suggestions for recurring themes, outstanding ideas and elements that could form the basis of a masterplan for development.
After the stalled development of the Broadmarsh Centre, the City Council decided to undertake an engagement exercise, the Big Conversation, to explore what people across Nottingham and our conurbation wanted to see happen with the space the Broadmarsh Centre currently occupies.
The opportunity to reimagine the site comes as the Southside of the city is transformed through a number of new developments, including Nottingham Castle, the new Broadmarsh Car Park, Bus Station, Central Library and shops, new public realm including green areas on Collin Street, greener active space on Sussex Street and the new Nottingham College City Hub, along with office redevelopments at Unity Square, City Buildings on Carrington Street and new offices on Station Street.
Nottingham City Council Leader, Councillor David Mellen, said: “I’m pleased to see the enthusiastic responses from the public – it’s clear there is a lot of passion and imagination out there for what happens next to the Broadmarsh Centre and we have really enjoyed reading through the proposals. I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the Broadmarsh Big Conversation, whether your idea was a small thing you’d like to see or a wide ranging proposal, and we are sharing these findings with the newly formed Broadmarsh Advisory Group to help their work.
“We want to give proper time to look through those ideas now, as do the newly formed Broadmarsh Advisory Group. It’s no surprise to us that people value green space as well as a mix of green spaces and other developments, such as retail, housing and offices, which alongside our carbon neutral ambitions we’d want to see reflected in the site. We will be creating a masterplan for the site after considering the responses.
“The city’s new Economic and Recovery Plan recognises the redevelopment of the Broadmarsh site as a catalyst for wider change.”