Residents invited to voice Fareham shopping opinions

By Connor Steel

FAREHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL have urged all local residents to voice their opinion about the future of the borough’s shopping centre as they launched an “engagement exercise” about the site; which was purchased by councillors along with a selection of adjourning properties in West Street as they look to increase footfall and interest in the Town Centre.

The exercise hopes to understand what local people, residents, businesses and visitors would like to see as part of the development of Fareham Town Centre; with this week signalling an “initial listening period” that finishes on Wednesday (December 6). This is set to see 3 public drop-in sessions that are listed here as well as this downloadable online form.

Fareham Library and the Civic Offices will also both feature drop-off points for feedback, whilst the printed forms will be made available at both sites. The findings of the short exercise will then allow councillors to devise a number of options that will then be put back to the public in the spring of 2024 in a consultation format that will end by the end of summer.

Councillors are looking to establish exactly how residents use the town centre and their shopping habits, particularly as this may have changed over recent years. There is further the problems with increasingly vacant stores in the shopping centre and its layout doesn’t provide easy access to the new ‘Fareham Live’ which is due to open in the spring of 2024.

The council have recruited the experience of RivingtonHark as part of these processes and they will lead on the area of providing strategic town centre regeneration advice. Staff will be aided by both Leslie Jones Architecture as the master-planner and Redwood Consulting whom will be working alongside the council to manage their community engagement.

Full comments from Executive Leader, Cllr Sean Woodward, can be seen online via the Council website; whilst readers can see our Globe article on this purchase of ‘Fareham Shopping Centre’ here (as written / published in early October).