OnTheWight has seen internal Isle of Wight council documents showing a number of concepts being explored to remodel Ryde and its Esplanade area.
We now share those with you.
Some radical concepts
There are some very radical ideas (below) – not that radical is necessarily bad.
The ‘Comprehensive’ version apparently has large new structures covering the whole of the car park by the Hovertravel terminal and over much of Ryde Harbour. The legend for the plans has not been forthcoming, so what they are is as yet not definite.
Housing on Upper St Thomas’ Street car park
Other plans show the changing of Ryde’s Upper St Thomas’ Street car park into housing
The Power Point slides were projected onto a screen during a presentation to Ryde Town Council in March 2018 also include the following description for the possible redevelopments.
These are ideas/concepts to be floated for discussion.
The Regeneration team has twice attended Site Match – a speed dating event to match those who want to develop with developers.
The Regeneration team say they will assess options and viability of the proposals.
“Potential options identified”
From the document the Regeneration Team outline the concepts.
- Comprehensive Regeneration, integrated and area wide regeneration to make optimal use of land and create transformative solution.
- Restoration approach seek to put heritage at the centre of proposals maximum open space.
- Strategic intervention, work with existing uses adding additional development.
- Limited Intervention avoids difficulty of land assembly and lease agreements.
Public meeting this evening
There’s a meeting in Ryde planned for this evening (Wednesday 2nd May) to discuss the Isle of Wight council’s plans for the regeneration of the area.
History of Ryde’s regeneration
The redevelopment of Ryde’s ‘Gateway to the Island’ has been much discussed previously, with the most recent time being the grand redevelopment of the Ryde Interchange being cancelled nearly ten years ago in 2009.
The architect said at the time:
“We had put four years of work into the project and to see it scuppered at the last minute is a huge shame.”
Prior to the cancellation, the council had ‘accepted’ £6.2m funding from the Government for the scheme.
Concepts
These are ideas/concepts to be floated for discussion.
Views of concerned resident
A concerned Ryde resident has also annotated the concept plans, questioning what the buildings might be used for.
