Preston
City Centre
Clear Zone
Consultation
Aug - Sept 07

SUCCESS is a Partnership between La Rochelle (France), Ploiesti (Romania)
and Lancashire County Council, Preston City Council and South Ribble Borough Council (UK), under the EU CIVITAS initiative.

SUCCESS Partnership (Click to enlarge)

Proposed Area (Click to enlarge)

A vision for a Preston Clear Zone

We want to create a Preston city centre that is pleasant to be in, vibrant, successful and proud. Imagine:

“... a city where you can travel with ease to work, around the shops, or to entertainment; where the shopping environment is full of vitality, vibrant and accessible, by foot, bike, the train, bus or your car and for deliveries; a city where you can breathe clean air and enjoy public open spaces; where
cyclists, pedestrians, elderly and disabled people can all move around freely and in safety……

Let's work together to make this vision a reality.

Achieving the vision

The Clear Zone initiative aims to improve public space using good urban design, reduce the impact of through-traffic, and give priority to sustainable transport.
The Preston Clear Zone is focussed on the historical retail centre of the city. Major changes are planned in other areas of the city, such as the Tithebarn, and it will be important that the area covered by the Clear Zone is not left behind. The aim is to enhance the city centre as an attractive place for visitors, workers and shoppers.

To enhance the area within the Clear Zone and take us towards the vision we want to:

• Improve the overall environment, quality of streets and public spaces;
• Increase overall accessibility, making walking and cycling a greater priority;
• Improve conditions for shoppers along and around Fishergate, to promote this vital retail quarter of the city;
• Discourage traffic using the Clear Zone as a short-cut to reach other parts of the city, to reduce pollution, tackle congestion and reduce the risk of accidents; and
• Provide suitable routes for delivery vehicles and public transport services in
  the Clear Zone.

The Way Forward

There are many opportunities to make improvements to the area, some of which have been highlighted above. Some improvements are easy to agree, can be made quite quickly and within existing transport and road-safety budgets. Other more significant changes will take longer.

The aim of this consultation is so people hear about the plans for a Clear Zone and for the citizens of Preston to decide what they want it to contain. The improvements suggested here have been divided into three possible phases. Each phase contains a range of actions. Phase 1 would go some way to realising the vision described above. Phase 2, if supported, could bring even greater changes, and help meet more of the objectives. Finally, Phase 3 would take the area the furthest towards realising the vision for the Clear Zone.

• Phase 1: actions with a positive impact, that can be put in place in the next few years and at the lowest cost.
• Phase 2: actions with a larger impact, that will take a bit longer to put into place and would cost more overall.
• Phase 3: actions with the greatest impact, that will need longer term plans to agree, get right and find funding.

It might be decided through this consultation that Phase 1 goes far enough. If greater change is preferred, then implementing Phase 1 followed by Phase 2 might be the right approach. People may think that all the actions should be put into place. In that case, Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 could be implemented to complete the Clear Zone over a number of years. This consultation provides the opportunity to say how far you think the changes should go.

You can view our Newsletter for June 2007 here (PDF 613KB)

Have your say

We are now in consultation for the 20mph Clear Zone in Preston, you can view the brochure here (PDF 1.7MB) and use our form for your comments here (PDF 208KB)