Truro Place Shaping Project

Improved public transport with more frequent and cheaper bus services and safe cycling and pedestrian routes.

Increased education and health services with high quality sports, culture and leisure provision for all ages.

Green spaces and community hubs for everyone to use and enjoy - these are just some of the ideas put forward by people visiting the Truro Place Shaping stand in Boscawen Park on Sunday (September 8).

Hundreds of people took up the invitation to find out more about the plans being developed for the urban neighbourhood at Pydar Street and the new Langarth Garden Village and the work taking place to refresh the Truro and Kenwyn Neighbourhood Plan and outline their own ideas and aspirations.

Representatives from all three projects were on hand throughout the day to provide information and listen to people’s views and comments.

“Work is currently taking place to develop masterplans for both the Pydar regeneration project and the new Langarth Garden Village,” said Bob Egerton, Cornwall Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Economy.

“At the same time the Truro and Kenwyn Neighbourhood Plan is being updated to ensure that it includes robust policies on the new developments coming forward for this area.

“We are looking to create new vibrant and distinctive communities providing well designed housing which meet the needs and budgets of all sectors at both Pydar and Langarth. With sustainable transport links promoting walking and cycling, innovative workspaces and cultural and leisure facilities set in high quality open spaces, we want these to be places where people want to live, work and thrive. But we need the community to say how it wants these schemes to evolve.

“It was great to see so many people keen to help shape the vision for Truro and I would like to thank everyone who gave up their time to come and talk to members of the teams leading these projects and share their ideas.”

Visitors to the Truro Place Shaping stand were also invited to ‘design their own village’ as part of the development of the masterplans, and to be part of the first green shoots of Langarth Garden Village by decorating a tree label with their name. These labels will ultimately be attached to one of the many thousands of new trees due to be planted at Langarth as part of the Garden Village scheme.

While lots of positive ideas were put forward during the day, people also raised concerns about the projects generating additional traffic on the roads, potential damage to the existing city centre, the loss of green spaces, the costs and designs of the new homes, and the impact of additional housing on local services.

“All these views will be taken on board by the teams developing the masterplans for the Pydar and Langarth schemes,” said Bob Egerton. “Both masterplans are due to be completed by the end of this year and we will be staging further community events over the coming months to enable as many people as possible to have their say and help shape the vision for Truro.”

The Government recently announced that Truro has been selected as one of four towns in Cornwall that will benefit from the new Towns Fund.

Work is now take place to draw up a ‘Town Deal’ plan aimed at transforming the economic growth prospects of the city and visitors to the Place Shaping stand were invited to put forward their ideas for how the funding should be spent.

Future engagement activities include a pop-up exhibition with information about all three projects in the former Hardy Carpets store in Truro during the last week of October.

There will also be a series of exhibitions and workshops in and around Truro for the Langarth Garden Village project, as well as for the Truro and Kenwyn Neighbourhood Plan.

Information about the projects is also available on the Truro Place Shaping website – www.lovetruro.net/- and the Facebook page @truroplaceshapingproject.