Ashford leads the way with ambitious urban renewal scheme

One of Europe's most ambitious urban renewal schemes could provide the blueprint that will inspire towns and cities across the UK to take a radical new approach to street design

The market town of Ashford in Kent, which is being revitalised thanks to a £650m investment programme, has begun work on a major 'shared space' project to transform its 1970s ring road into a series of quality, two-way streets in which drivers, cyclists and pedestrians all have equal priority.

The radical 'Breaking Boundaries' scheme will rid Ashford of what's been described as 'a choking concrete collar' and open up the town centre to make it more attractive to residents, businesses and visitors. The project will be a major contribution to the town's revitalisation and forms part of the drive to establish Ashford as one of the best places in Britain in which to live and work.

The scheme is being implemented by Kent County Council at a cost of over £11m, most of which will come from the Department of Communities and Local Government. The rest is being provided by Ashford Borough Council, the EU through the Interreg programme, the private sector, the SEEDA-funded Channel Corridor Partnership, and the Arts Council. Work is due to be completed by summer 2008.

An unprecedented move to convert the one-way ring road to support two-way traffic was undertaken in July 2007 and work is now underway to create the first area of shared space. Unnecessary street furniture, road markings and traffic lights will be removed and the design speed lowered to 20mph.

Road surfaces will be replaced with high-quality materials, wider footpaths and low kerbs, to create a distinctive streetspace, while artists will transform space claimed back from the highway into public areas for recreation and events. Other ideas being considered include musical stepping stones and way-marking water channels.
"This is a national first," says Councillor Paul Clokie, chairman of the Ashford's Future partnership, the agency overseeing Ashford's growth programme. "It will make the town centre more attractive and vibrant and will attract more visitors. It will complement the opening of the County Square retail development and will unlock other commercial development in the area being led by SEEDA."

The project has brought together an integrated design team of sculptors, artists and engineers along with a number of specialist consultants – among them urban design expert, Ben Hamilton-Baillie, who describes the Ashford shared space project as a bold move.

"It represents a massive step forward in reconciling the movement of people and traffic in built-up areas," he says. "Throughout the country, scores of towns and cities are scarred by ugly and divisive inner ring roads. Reconnecting such barren places to the towns they serve to create lively, distinctive public spaces offers hope for huge social and economic benefits.

"The shared space concept represents a significant challenge to long-standing assumptions about how to allow movement and maintain safety in the built environment. My experience of many other towns blighted by 1960s and 1970s inner ring roads suggests that the example of Ashford could provide enormous benefit across the country in terms of experience and inspiration."

The shared space philosophy has been developed through pioneering schemes in many mainland European countries, in particular, the work of Dutch traffic engineer, Hans Monderman. Although the principles and practice have taken hold much later in the UK, there are signs that the concept is now developing faster here than in other countries, says Mr Hamilton-Baillie. Ashford is one of a growing number of communities in the UK that are championing a new approach to streets and public spaces.

Shared space works on the principle that when all conventional traffic control and segregation measures are removed, such as speed humps, traffic lights, crossings and kerbs, the driver is no longer psychologically distanced from the society or place around him. Without the certainty and separation of the conventional highway, speeds reduce and human interaction improves.

So why does uncertainty improve traffic movement? Mr Hamilton-Baillie explains: "Look at ice skating rinks. They operate with few rules and no overseeing regulator, yet informal social protocols keep skaters moving in a roughly consistent direction, with beginners on the outside and faster skaters on the inside.

"What you get is a collective consensus, with everyone instinctively communicating, anticipating and reacting. Humans are highly complex and adaptable to their surroundings."

The Ashford scheme began taking shape two years ago, as Kent County Council's Richard Stubbings explains: "Once the project was identified as essential to allow Ashford to grow beyond the current straight jacket of the existing ring road, we knew a major transformation was needed, along with vision and a will to challenge conventional ways of building highway schemes.

"Until August 2005, the term 'shared space' was still an unknown to us", says Mr Stubbings, a member of KCC's Ring Road Champions Group. "Then Lindsey Whitelaw of Whitelaw Turkington, our urban designers, suggested that we have a presentation from Ben Hamilton-Baillie which they felt may interest us, based on their own involvement in the Exhibition Road project in London.

"We met Ben in London and he introduced us to the philosophy of shared space and told us how it was working in Holland and Denmark. The principles he outlined fitted perfectly with the emerging aspirations for Ashford."

Following a range of investigations into future and current traffic flows, design studies, and a visit to Holland by council members and officers to see shared space working first-hand, the concept was finally adopted for Ashford. Such a massive undertaking has, understandably, caused a certain amount of disruption to motorists and the scheme has met with a degree of scepticism by some local residents and businesses – but the architects of the project remain confident that the long-term benefits will win over the doubters.

"To arrive at where we are now has involved much research, investigations and careful thought for those involved," says Mr Stubbings, "plus enthusiasm and a willingness to try something different."

That willingness to challenge conventional wisdom could ultimately reap huge rewards for Ashford, says Mr Hamilton-Baillie: "No other council has ever adopted such an ambitious urban renewal scheme to tackle the blight of a ring road and it's a very brave decision.

"Economists are increasingly discovering that to attract investment you need more than just quality – you need to be distinctive from other places. Success depends on having a strong identity. If we can learn from Ashford and show what's possible, towns and cities up and down the country will be lining up to follow our lead."