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Ambitious proposals that set out an exciting and innovative future for Central Stockton and North Thornaby over the next 25 years have now been finalised, and approved by Cabinet and are available to view at this link.

The Central Stockton and North Thornaby Blueprint outlines Council plans to create prosperous, vibrant places fit for future generations, mixed-use neighbourhoods and a stronger town centre with increased footfall.

The vision will inform future design and used to meet the Council's and local people's ambitions to revitalise the area and ensure it is a safe and welcoming place to work, live and visit.

This consultation portal will close tomorrow. 

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the production of this Blueprint!

We hope you have enjoyed looking through design proposals for central areas of Stockton, and north Thornaby. 

The consultation ends later today, so this is a reminder in case you have if you have any further thoughts you'd like to share! 

Many thanks to everyone for their engagement over the past month. Here's a few graphs summarising overall sentiment towards proposals, with general positivity towards all suggestions:

• What do you think about the layout proposals for Site 1 (Town Centre South)?

• What do you think about the use proposals for Site 2 (Town Centre North)?

• What do you think about the layout proposals for Site 5 (Prince Regent Quarter)?

We've had an amazing response to the Blueprint consultation over the past few weeks, with over 5000 visits to the website, and a significant number of people contributing their thoughts and letting us know which projects they like best. Thank you to everyone who has participated so far!

Here's a brief look at some of the responses:

• Site 1: Town Centre (South) "Having more people living and working in the town centre would encourage more people to visit and use the spaces. It’s a great town with some amazing buildings and spaces already, so highlighting and adding to those would be great."

• Site 2: Town Centre (North), former Debenhams building: "I'd love to see it full of small businesses, shops or an entertainment space with food outlets too... a bit of everything under one roof!"

• Site 3: Municipal Quarter: "happy with proposed buildings but looks as though a lot of car parks will be taken away. If more people are going to be living in and visiting the town is there going to be enough parking?"

• Site 4: Castlegate Quays: "It feels really important to have celebrations of heritage as early as possible, even just a trail to follow or information about the railway, shipbuilding, Stockton Castle etc." 

• Site 6: Stockton Waterways: "I love it, lots of thriving European towns and cities utilise the waterways, with people living on them. Great idea to do this, we have a great river and just need to have more people using it."

Do you agree with these comments? What are your main concerns? We'd love to hear from those who have not yet responded! 

The survey remains open until next Monday (25th March).

We've now launched the final phase of Consultation for the Stockton Blueprint project, and would love to hear your thoughts on proposals for areas around central Stockton. 

• What do you think of the ideas for improved public spaces at St Mark's Basin and Castlegate Quay....?
• Are you interested in living closer to Stockton centre, in an apartment overlooking the river, near a range of neighbourhood cafes and restaurants...?
• Are there any additional opportunities that we've missed...? 
  

The surveys will remain open until 25th March.

The draft Stockton Central Blueprint is due to launch on Commonplace within the next few days! 

Following two rounds of informative consultation and iterative design development over the past few months, the team have prepared a set of images to explore how each of the key intervention areas could transform over time. 

• What could the future of the Town Centre look like, and how could the former Debenhams building be re-activated?
• What are the transformational plans for Teesdale?
• How could areas around Church Lane, Prince Regent Road, Riverside and North Shore provide for a growing population over time?

The final phase of Blueprint consultation will run until 25th March, and we hope to hear your feedback on design proposals, to inform the future of Stockton! 

Do you agree with these comments...? What are your views on more town centre housing to increase footfall along the High Street...?

Complete our surveys!

To comment on our ideas and inform the emerging designs for the future of Stockton, please clickthis linkand share it with your friends and family.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Thank you to everybody who has contributed to the Commonplace Survey so far; Your feedback is crucial in shaping the future of Stockton.

During the festive season we will continue to monitor the feedback from the survey so far. If you haven’t had the chance to give your feedback on the proposals please visit our commonplace site to share your thoughts. The survey will be open for an additional week from today.

Your voice matters in building a better Stockton.

Thank you for being a part of this important process.

Following the sucess of the intial consultation the Stockton Blueprint is now due to enter its second phase.

We are introducing a Second Commonplace Survey. Please head over to the survey to help shape future Stockton.

Our Blueprint Design Team have identified 9 potential intervention and regeneration zones for central areas of Stockton. Please take your time to read our suggested project ideas on the survey, and let us know which you think would have the greatest impact for Stockton.

The survey will be open for 3 weeks in the run up to Christmas, and we'd like to hear from as many local people as possible!

The aim of this phase is to consider the overall Narrative Vision for Stockton over the next 25+ years, as well as individual project suggestions. Which ideas are good, and which would have less impact? What areas might we have missed? This will help to inform our emerging design ideas for the Central Stockton area.

Following analysis of Stage 1 consultation and our internal research and investigative mapping activities, the Blueprint Design Team have identified a set of suggested strategic intervention and regeneration zones. We will shortly be launching a second public survey for you to review and comment on emerging design ideas, and let us know what we’ve missed.

Some identified zones are already performing fairly successfully and will see less transformation than other areas. Some are earmarked to potentially become new high quality residential neighbourhoods within central Stockton, some will continue to offer retail and leisure experiences, and some may have lighter touch public realm interventions. Key to all of this is ensuring Stockton makes better use of its existing assets – such as the River Tees.

Emerging Strategic Regeneration Zones

1. The Municipal Quarter
2. Castlegate Quay
3. Stockton Waterway Strategy
4. Stockton Waterfront and High Street (South)
5. Prince Regent Quarter
6. Town Centre North
7. North Shore
8. Tees Barrage International White Water Centre
9. Teesdale Care & Health Innovation Zone

An initial Stakeholder workshop was held on Wednesday 15th November, to discuss a Narrative Vision for the Blueprint and start exploring emerging proposals. 

Keep an eye out for the launch of our second Blueprint survey on Commonplace shortly!

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey and commented on the map so far. We have received lots of interesting and exciting feedback to use for the next stage of the project.

Click here for the Stage 1 Interactive Map.

Click here to complete the Stage 1 Survey.

There are only a few more days to complete the Stage 1 Survey. The map will remain open even after Stage 1 is complete. We would like to remined and encourage everyone that it is possible to comment on the map more than once. So if you would like, comment again and let us know what you think.

Please also subscribe for future updates and share this project with others!

Caption: Workshop introduction presentation

The first Blueprint workshop took place on the 13 September 2023 and included a wide range of stakeholders.

Now that demolition of the Castlegate Shopping Centre is well underway the aim of the workshop was to ask: what next? what is the vision for the area? and what does this mean for the development of other sites in the central area of Stockton and on the Teesdale Business Park?

The workshop looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the central Stockton area including a mapping exercise to look at where these strengths and weaknesses were concentrated. Some strengths include the heritage and character of the town, High Street, the market and public realm, the sense of community, frontage along the River Tees and entertainment venues. The weaknesses included feelings/perceptions of safety, quality of housing, the range of shops, and disruptive evening activity.

Caption: Stakeholders participating in a workshop Activity

Another activity of the workshop was to list other towns and places that were potentially good examples for Stockton central area and what could be learnt from them. This fed into an initial discussion about vision for the area, the scope to improve shopping offer, expand the range and quality of town centre housing, increase the evening economy, and improve the quality of the environment. The outputs will feed into two further workshops that will explore the vision, options, and proposals for the central area of Stockton.

Don't forget to complete the Stage 1 Survey and comment on the Stage 1 interactive map. Please also subscribe for future updates and share this project with others!

On Wednesday the 23rd of August, our team visited Stockton Town Centre, Teesdale Business Park and the North Shore developments. Stockton is full of character – with a thriving market and a wealth of historic buildings. It’s riverside location offers great potential, with an expanding housing offer along the banks and further opportunities to explore health and leisure activities, and natural spaces along the waterfront.

Here are a few highlights and initial observations from our visit.

Strong architectural character and public realm: Church Road and Stockton Parish Church / High Street Fountain / Manhattan’s Building

Opportunities: Pub courtyard and Flea Market tucked into historic block / Castlegate demolition welcomes new public park / Empty lot on High Street - development opportunity

Riverside potential: Millenium Bridge / Teesdale Business Park / North Shore residential development

Map of our route through Stockton