Yate Town Centre Masterplan, Bristol – South Gloucestershire Council with Arup

This is a strategic rethink of Yate, a historic town North of Bristol. The town centre is diversified to provide a wide range of shops, workhubs and apartments. The existing GP surgery and community facilities are retained and enhanced with quality outdoor spaces, and new greened streets strengthen connections with the town’s main hubs; the bus station, the train station, the River Frome and the new Green Loop around the perimeter of the town.

Where is the project located
Yate Town Centre, Kennedy Way, BS37 4AA
 
Who is the developer/client of the project?
South Gloucestershire Council

Transforming Yate Town into a sustainable, vibrant, healthly place to live. 

Arup was commissioned to undertake a strategic rethink of Yate, a historic town North of Bristol that in the 1960’s experienced explosive growth based on a low density, monofunctional, car-oriented model. A challenging task for which we took city design strategies pioneered over 10 years working with the C40 Cities, researching how cities contribute to climate change and adaptation with people at the heart of change, using this knowledge to turn a ”commuter” town into a thriving, sustainable community.

This groundbreaking project involved taking a ‘town wide approach’ to reviewing current systems, networks and spaces to deliver a comprehensive and coordinated Masterplan and Action Plan that is both transformational and championed by the community.

The town faces multiple challenges; how to transition to a de-carbonised future, changing retail habits, accommodate significant population growth and mitigate climate change effects especially flooding from the River Frome.

Arup’s whole town approach identified key areas as catalyst for change; the town centre, mobility networks, green and blue infrastructure and healthy happy people as the priority themes to guide the transformation priorities, developed through an intensive codesign process with a broad base of stakeholders

(Donna Winham, Regeneration Manager South Gloucestershire Council) Arup “bring ambition and vision to the project and possess a clear understanding the broad context of creating a masterplan with a political context. They have been successful in working with both internal and external stakeholders.”
 
Please describe your approach to this future place and its mix of uses. How will it function as a vibrant place? How does it knit into, and serve the needs of the wider area?

Starting with the centre as a catalyst for change 

A town centre should be; a place to meet, a place to shop, a community heart and a vibrant cultural and social core. Starting with a new square and park, the transformed town centre will become a new neighbourhood of streets, cafes, shops and living space.

This square becomes the community’s social hub with markets, events, theatre and sports all supported by high quality public realm.

An ‘urban living’ approach; vertical mixed use, a range of homes for all ages and incomes, with private outdoor space, is used taking city density and translating it into an urban form suitable for a New Town.

The town centre is diversified to provide a wide range of shops, food and beverage outlets, workhub and apartments. The existing GP surgery and community facilities are retained and enhanced with quality outdoor spaces, providing continuity of care with new facilities fit for the 21st Century.

This much needed investment spills out from the centre through new greened streets; active corridors, strengthening the centres connections with the town’s main hubs; the bus station, the train station, the River Frome and the new Green Loop around the perimeter of the town.

The masterplan interventions will improve the living conditions, providing benefits to the existing community and the new inhabitants. The town centre will be a destination for visitors and residents alike providing vital services to Yate and the surrounding rural communities, strengthening Yates’s role as a regional centre.
 
What is the environmental impact of the project? How will the carbon use and material impact of the development be mitigated? What is the sustainability strategy? Please provide any evidence or data.

What does sustainability look like for a rural community? 

Rural areas have some of the largest carbon footprints due, in part, to dispersed communities and the need to travel to access services and employment creates a footprint 4-8% larger than an average city dweller, with 33% of GHG emissions from transport (2016).

Out commuting

The Yate Masterplan sets the ambitious target of a 60% modal shift from car based to train-based movements for out commuting. This is achieved through creating a new Park and Ride on the town’s western edge, a short walk from Yate Train Station.

Yate Train Station becomes a ‘Living interchange’ a vibrant mix of transport, workspace hub and living accommodation set over extended rail platforms and cycle storage. This will become a local destination and a ‘regional connector’ for rural communities giving them access onto the main employment hubs of Bristol and Cheltenham.

Local accessibility

Adopting Arup’s Green and Thriving neigbourhoods ‘15 minute principle’ creates the structure to enable accessible services within Yate.

This is achieved by locating key services in the transformed town centre and connecting active travel and public transport routes across to this new core. Dedicated public transport routes along Station Road, an improved Bus Station, pedestrianising the town centre and creating a series of green and blue routes enable network change across the town.

The effect is to create cleaner mobility for Yate reducing the average carbon footprint and improving active travel and health and wellbeing of residents.
 
Describe the social impact of the project: How will this future place contribute to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of its citizens? 

A New Town Revitilised. How do you turn around the economic decline of the 1960’s Suburban Town?

Yate has an aging population and this combined with a decline in manufacturing output, which Yate has historically relied on means that a diversification the economic and demographic base of the town is required.

However, accommodation is not available to attract the right companies or people.

As part of the town wide approach four new strategic development areas were identified, the Town Centre, Station Road, the Train Station and the Western Gateway.

Each area focuses on a different economic outcome; retail and leisure in the centre, workhub and flexible offices around the station, modernising industrial and manufacturing at Western Gateway and support to local entrepreneurship along Station Road. The combined effect is to strengthen the employment sector in the town and encourage new companies to locate there.

New companies will attract new inhabitants from across the demographic spectrum diversifying the community as well as the economy.

Cross sector support

None of this can be achieved without the support of all landowners, providers, local stakeholders and the community. Extensive in person engagement and soft market testing has been used throughout the process and a codesign approach has been undertaken to build commitment to enable change. Arup worked in close conjunction with landowners and estates managers across the public and private sectors to create a cohesive and deliverable masterplan.