LDA Design commissioned over Taunton Waterways Strategy and Guidance

Image: courtesy of Richard Winn / Alamy 

Public consultation has opened on a new strategy that gives Taunton’s waterways a strong placemaking role in its future, according to LDA Design.

As Somerset’s first Garden Town, Taunton is planning for regeneration that celebrates its history and its culture as well as making the town greener, improving its transport network and creating high-quality neighbourhoods.

LDA Design and co-consultants Calm Engineering and EAD Ecology were commissioned by Somerset Council through the Homes England framework to produce Taunton Waterways Strategy and Guidance.

The Strategy redefines the town’s waterways – the River Tone, the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and multiple tributaries – as a substantial linear park serving the whole town.

LDA Design explains:

'The successful management of a physical asset at this scale is highly complex and LDA facilitated workshops with the key stakeholders to ensure that investment is geared towards delivering a wide range of agreed outcomes. These include a sense of place and identity, contact with nature, climate and biodiversity resilience, recreation and leisure opportunities, healthy living and wellbeing, economic vitality and investor appeal.'

LDA Design Director Paul Connelly said,:

“This strategy brings all kinds of opportunities into focus. For example, it will help with regeneration of the multiple brownfield sites which are linked by the river corridor. The linear park will be realised incrementally over time through targeted investment, creating a series of connected spaces that enrich life across the town.”

Public consultation on the Taunton Waterways Strategy and Guidance Consultation closes 28 November 2024.