Introduction
Our Corporate Plan 2017-2022 includes a requirement for the Council to become a more efficient and effective Council. Within this it specifically identifies
- Maximising income opportunities, and identifying new opportunities for income generation
- Maximising Council income through effective asset management and collection services
Alongside the Corporate Plan a Commercialisation Strategy was agreed by Cabinet in September 2017.
A report to Cabinet in August 2018 presented a strategic business case in how the council approaches commercialisation, which was agreed, and in a report to Cabinet in August 2019 it made the recommendation that a new member Civic Quarter Regeneration Working Group was created to enable the delivery of the project.
About the project
The Civic Quarter site is one of the largest assets owned by Hart District Council and is potentially underutilised in its current provision of services and amenities for residents. In August 2019, the Council set out on an ambitious project to explore a range of strategic opportunities for the regeneration of the Council owned Civic site in Fleet.
A working group of elected Members, with equal weighting from the three representative political parties, was created to oversee the review of future options with the aim of investigating opportunities of:
- Regeneration of the Civic centre site, a key part of the town of Fleet
- Effective and efficient use of Council assets within the Civic Quarter
- Evaluating existing facilities to determine how best to reuse or re-provide these assets
- Creating a vibrant place where people will want to spend time whether at leisure, work, living or utilising open spaces
Shaping the critical success factors
The council asked the Hart community for feedback through a questionnaire that ran until Monday 4 July. This aimed to help determine a set of ‘critical success factors’ which will guide and tailor future decisions.
Results of the questionnaire will be published late Summer 2022.
The Vision
The vision for the Civic Quarter regeneration project is to deliver an area which residents of the district can be proud of and creates a lively destination focussed around high quality public space and community facilities.
The area
Below is a map of the Hart District Council owned land in the area, which is the scope of this project.
The working group
In August 2019, Cabinet approved the setting up of a cross party Cabinet Working Group to investigate potential redevelopment options of the Civic Quarter site. The Fleet Neighbourhood Plan (adopted Nov 2019) was stated as a key reference document and a draft list of stakeholders was approved also.
All working group minutes are published and reported at the following cabinet meeting. Please visit our meeting agendas & minutes webpage to find past minutes.
Timeline
To date the working group have made good progress collating data and identifying the various ‘directions’ that can be taken to delivering the vital and ambitious project. The group have secured external advice after an external tendering exercise.
Past decisions can be found within the working group meeting minutes.
Community Engagement 23 May until 4 July 2022 – We engaged with the Hart District Community to gather initial ideas for the Civic Quarter Regeneration project.
Feedback from Engagement – We are in the process of collating responses and feedback findings.
Development of designs based on feedback – Further consultations will be run following the development of design options.
Next steps
The Working Group will review all feedback from the engagement phase and will relay our findings and future actions in summer 2022.
