Camberley High Street – transforming the public realm

Background

Project Centre worked with Surrey Heath Council to transform Camberley High Street into a thriving hub of activity and community. We set new quality standards for the town’s public realm and connectivity.

Camberley High Street is situated in a lively area and our objective was to bring the streets back to the people.

The project reinforces the main streets as key routes for the community. Through implementing pedestrian and cyclist-friendly areas, it develops an environment that clearly encourages active travel while improving the public realm.

Process

We began with engaging the public through providing a continued and diversified communication strategy.

Our design and traffic team worked seamlessly to deliver all technical phases of the project. We achieved:

• Revitalising the main streets – we reduced vehicle traffic and reorganised the streets, through implementing appropriate layouts and traffic calming elements
• Accessibility strategy – we provided an inclusive design with clear demarcation of disabled bays, footways, and tactile paving
• Planting strategy – our proposed seating planters softened the town centre as well as it upgraded its biodiversity
• Lighting Strategy – we implemented cost-efficient and easy-maintenance energy, providing character definitions of different spaces
• Public art – we worked with stakeholders and partners to implement multiple forms of art and aesthetic spaces, inspiring a sense of local ownership within the community

Outcome

Our project improved the public realm by creating high quality walking and cycling infrastructure (from zero cycle stands to 25) and it increased the footway space by over 20%, encouraging the community and the businesses to spill out.

For the benefits it gave to the community and for its execution, the CIHT Institute commended our Camberley High Street project for the “Creating Better Places” Award in 2022.

We are delighted to be supporting this project, which underpins our plans for economic growth and better quality of life. These improvements to Camberley Town Centre will help meet the wider challenges and objectives identified in our Strategic Economic Plan by promoting town centre renewal to secure inward investment and create vibrant communities.

Mike Short CBE, Chairman of the Enterprise M3 LEP

Get in touch to find out how we can support you with the design of your public realm.