By now, I hope you realise that I really do think Banbury is the bee’s knees, that I enjoy living here and enjoy sharing the best of Banbury with as many people as I can. This is not to say that I think it’s perfect. It is most assuredly not. There are lots of things I would do if I were ‘Empress for a day’, and things I’d like to see happen as the town continues to evolve. Here are a few:
Lines and Links
The link between the train station and town centre needs both aesthetic and safety improvements. That junction is an absolute disaster traffic-wise and a few reminder lines wouldn’t go amiss. Also, a nice journey for pedestrians would be nice. Is there nothing that can be done with the abandoned building right at the front?
Boost Bike Use
Genuine, joined up, enforceable cycling infrastructure – advisory lanes here and there are only paying lip service to the idea of getting more people to travel by bike; the bare minimum to meet some ‘pin the tail on the central gov guideline’ target. I’d like to see the powers that be in Banbury commit to building a better way to get around. and stop tap dancing around the edges.
Improve the View
Masking of the bins overlooking the canal. I’ve mentioned this before. The canal was always a nice little walk and now – with all this investment in place, to a point that it has got an actual NAME (Castle Quay Waterfront) – wouldn’t it be nice to change the view from the museum cafe (excitingly soon to be Pavement Coffee’s brick and mortar debut) from retail bins to something green? I can understand not wanting to shell out lots of dosh on an ongoing maintenance basis, but even a few fake hedge panels would go a long way to improving the view of the mall’s bin-heavy backside.
Take a Seat
Updated, socially-arranged seating in Market Square – if it included some sort of charging bench and greenery, even better. I understand that during various events, these might need to be moved but mobility and flexibility are increasingly common features of the latest modular street furniture. And what an improvement it would be over the random scatter of a handful of benches in a large and (on non-market days) largely empty space. Towns all over the country are investing in their public spaces and the popularity of the outdoor area of Lock29 and the tables from Market Square vendors on market days show people LIKE coming together outside. The marketplace has so much potential and it’s being wasted due to what I suspect is a bit of ‘we’ve always done it this way.’
I love these planter benches used in this picture from Poland but there are lots of options these days – from simply repurposed sleeper benches (not unlike those along the back of the new Lidl) to full on ‘parklettes.’
Tidy up
When town centre spaces close up and aren’t taken up again for a long time, they can start to look scruffy. I get that scruffy is not a deal-breaker but after an even longer time, scruffy becomes downright derelict, pulls the area down visually, and dampens the enthusiasm for being in the town centre. Have you seen what has become of the former site of JT Davies? That whole entrance into the town centre from Bolton Street Car Park is an embarrassment – cluttered, overgrown, visually chaotic. And Bridge Street, while much improved at the Crown House end with long term empties now filled, features what I think is the single most unfortunate mess in a prominent location:
Final Thoughts
Other serious renovations have helped too – work at The Grand has started to reveal the potential on Broad Street. But it doesn’t have to be a major renovation to make a major impact,
We’ve seen how much even a quick clean can improve things: at the old Moss Bros building where the windows have become a sort of gallery, the repainting and dressing the windows of the old sandwich shop space on Parsons Street, the creation of the garden spot on Church Lane (which, OK I wish was better maintained and people could be trusted not to trash it but baby steps are steps too) – all of these were a long time coming but very welcome. And – in my view – the actions with the broadest most long-term value undertaken by the BID since it came into being.
All of which is just my opinion, obvs, but all of which I think would dovetail nicely with some of the positive changes we’re already seeing and could encourage more of those positive changes – the bigger, more costly ones – to come even faster.
