General Overview
Strategic objectives flow from this Vision and are thecriteria by which the contribution to the Vision made byproposed changes – redevelopment, refurbishment,environmental improvement, traffic and environmentalmanagement - can be measured. These objectives are:
A good place to do business:
providing anenvironment that is conducive to innovation andgrowth; encouraging enterprises of all sizes andsectors.
A great place to shop:
creating a virtuous circleof more City centre activity creating more shoppingcreating more shops attracting more City centreactivity. But this is focused on making Durham specialand different, not just the same as everywhere else,fostering local enterprise and independent retailers.
A focus for new employers:
recreating opportunitiesfor investors, developers and businesses to providejobs in and around the City centre, adding to therichness of City centre uses.
A great place to live:
maximising opportunities foreveryone to have a home in the City centre.
A focus for cultural activities:
exploiting the historyof the City and its remarkable artistic, spiritual andacademic life as the basis for museums, galleries,music, art and performance, in buildings, streets andspaces.
More and better entertainment, leisure and culturalvenues:
improving the range and quality of venuesmatched by an upsurge in events and performances.
Enhanced visitor facilities:
reinventing the City as ashort stay holiday destination by exploiting its newfoundimportance as a shopping, entertainment andcultural destination. Identifying new opportunities tostay for longer and enhancing the potential of localbusinesses to capture visitor expenditure for localwealth creation. Building a base for longer visitsto the surrounding region and linking into the NorthEast’s high quality and varied attractions.
A great place to study:
contributing to the “DurhamExperience” which attracts high achieving studentsand academics to the University to study andundertake research, and to all those engaged inLifelong Learning (both formal and informal) acrossthe City.
A centre for sporting pursuits:
creating a focus forhealthy living in the City through new, refurbished andexpanded facilities, made available to a wider cross section of the public.
Higher standards in design:
using high quality development to stimulate investment and to attract spending in the City centre – creating a place where the best designers want to design and the best developers want to develop, and anything less is not acceptable.
Better environmental performance:
creating aculture where good design minimises the impact onthe environment and on scarce resources.
A high quality public realm:
making the City centre a splendid place to walk and to rest, to watch and to participate, recreating the best standards of today across the City in the future.
A City centre spectacular by day and by night:
being sensitive to the character of the City centre after dark, using light to enhance its uniqueness.
A wealth of walks:
consolidating a network of walks through the City centre that meet the needs of different people for different reasons at different times, integrating streets, vennels and larger spaces and leading out of the City centre, north and south, into the rural hinterland and Necklace Park.
Transformed connections:
improving links between the City centre and the rest of the City, giving priority to people walking and cycling, and changing traffic priorities.
An Integrated Transport Strategy:
making the City centre walkable by improving its accessibility and improving the transition - from car and from bus and from train and from bicycle - to foot.
Higher standards of customer service:
giving all visitors the best possible experience. Supporting local suppliers: ensuring that moneygenerated in Durham stays in the regional economy, for the benefit of the people and businesses of the North East.
A strategic approach to town centre management:
using innovative ways to generate resources to improving the Durham City offer, based on ambitious, yet credible action plans.
Effective communications:
where information, good news and events are communicated dynamically 24 hours a day amongst local communities, businesses, local authorities, visitors and venues and enabling one-to-ones between individuals.
A shared sense of entitled access:
to information, to promotion and marketing, to education, to public transportation, to economic stability…to private land through Right of Way, to the River and surrounding countryside…access to each other, finding and building new communities of interest, both geographic and virtual.
A robust planning policy framework:
The new plan for the City will have a range of policies that support development which underpins these objectives and which resists development that frustrates or contradicts them, or in any way puts their delivery at risk.
