Weston ShoreScapes Heritage Project almost complete

The Weston Shore Plan

The great project to regenerate part of Southampton's shore line is currently nearing completion and it should be complete by early May 2007. The initial proposals for the Weston Shore were developed in consultation with Weston and Waterside Park residents. The residents of all age groups were consulted and at various stages by means of meetings and displays plus Council Ward members, residents and key stakeholders attend Weston Steering Group meetings, these discussions with local community as far back as 2001.

Eventually designs were agreed with the Heritage Lottery Fund and plans also submitted to SEEDA. As result of this wide consultation most people and certainly most local residents would agree that the improvements taken as a whole are a considerable improvement on what existed before and that the development more than meets the aims of the original masterplan and development framework which were to :-

• retain the wide and expansive character of the Shore,
• protect and enhance it's nature conservation value,
• interpret fully and raise awareness of the site's important heritage value,
• improve and create safe pedestrian and cycle links to the wider area,
• upgrade the existing infrastructure and provide a range of new facilities for the local (and wider) community in the form of new public toilets, and recreational facilities,
• maximise the opportunities for bringing in further funding investment to the Shore - from Heritage Lottery Fund, Landfill environmental trusts and others.

For a copy of the final plan and for more information on the projects see :-

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/people/yourcommunity/neighbourhood/regen-programmes/weston-shore.asp

In the last four years under the guidance of the Lib Dem administration most of the 10 projects have been completed. The largest of these ten is the Weston Shore is the ShoreScapes Heritage project which aims to raise awareness of the site's important social, archaeological and natural heritage and helps 'tie together' the whole site and it's various improvements and new facilities that have included new toilets, ball games and play areas, high quality street lighting, cycle/footpath links and car park improvements.

It's important to note that the ShoreScapes work is not fully complete yet so any members of the public who visits the site at present may see more of a building site than a pleasant shore line, as there is still quite of lot of cleaning and tidying up to do before final handover, which should happen in early May 2007.

Great detail and care has gone into the design of all aspects of the site, for example :-

• Curved concrete seating - this new seating has been designed to be built into the new landforms and is part of the subtle interpretation of the site. This interpretation for the shelters and text for seating has been influenced by the community programme and community workshops/events that took place in Weston during 2006. The text on both the seating and concrete plinth beneath are designed to be read whether sitting or standing - the horizontal text is read the correct way up while sitting, and the upright text can be read properly while standing. And of course the seating is comfortable unless it raining in which case be warned the seating will be wet too !!
• Turfing and landforms - the turf type used was specified to cope with the salts and weather conditions at Weston Shore. However the turfing project as been subject to two big set backs firstly the exceedingly wet winter delayed contractor progress on earth moving, and March/April's unseasonably dry weather has made it near impossible to continually water all the areas turfed and secondly some individuals had attempted to roll up and pinch turf from these areas. Therefore now most the new turf from these areas (except the Pitch & Putt Car Park) has had to be removed and they will be seeded with appropriate mixes at the appropriate time later in the year. Fortunately for the council and the taxpayer it is down to the sub-contractor to accept any additional cost incurred in this work.
• Gravel path - the new path is design to encourage at least some walkers away from the environmentally sensitive foreshore area. The recreation area (sometimes known locally as 'the kite flying field') gets particularly soggy, or muddy, underfoot in winter and by creating a gravel track it is hoped to encourage visitors and particularly dog walkers to use it during the winter months.

And finally what does this project not do well the answer is Sea defence. The Heritage Lottery Fund and SEEDA funding, along with landfill tax credit funding were provided to help regenerate the site, provide new facilities and raise awareness of the site's importance heritage, not for coastal defence matters. Sea defence is the subject of another project and subject to other funding.