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Council CEO Andrew Lloyd sees a bright future for Fanrborough
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Nightlife boost 'essential' to Farnborough centre

By Nick Edmondson
November 22, 2012

A REJUVENATION of Farnborough’s nightlife is “essential” to the town centre’s improvement, according to council chiefs.

Rushmoor Borough Council’s vision for the improvement of the town over the next 10 years will initially focus on a new cinema and restaurants in a bid to bring town to life in the evening.

Members of the council’s environment policy and review panel discussed the progress of the Farnborough plan during a meeting on Tuesday.

Council CEO Andrew Lloyd said the new multi-screen Vue cinema, which is expected to be in place by 2014, is a crucial move in the right direction.

He said: “Right now we have a very porous town. If we could keep just a small percentage of the people in Farnborough then the town centre will be successful. The night time economy is essential.”

James Stockdale, development manager of Key Property investments, which owns the Meads, said the contract to build the cinema would be awarded in the next two weeks, with a view to completing the build in a 12 month timetable.

“Where you put a cinema, the restaurants come,” he told the committee. “That is a big tick in a box for us. People will come and watch and eat and socialise and we will create a modern shopping and living development. We are looking to start with just a couple of restaurants, but I would happily have three or four there. We want to completely change the atmosphere.”

The committee heard how the Meads will be rejuvenated with landscaping, frontages, lighting and street furniture to create a more welcoming shopping scene.

Mr Stockdale said the area had a lot to be proud of, with Queensmead having no vacant shops.

Cllr Les Taylor said: “It’s very important that we try and improve the atmosphere in the Queensmead in the evening. We need to improve some footfall in the area because it just needs to be brought to life.”

Mr Lloyd said improvements to Farnborough ‘will not happen overnight’, but claimed the next two years of regeneration would attract new investors looking to pour money into development opportunities in the town centre.

He said: “We have never tried to make Farnborough into a regional centre like Guildford. We would be setting ourselves up to fail. “We want to make the town the first choice for local residents and that will make it a success.”

Cllr Mark Staplehurst said: “This is all very exciting. As a man who has grown up with two children in Farnborough with nothing for them, it’s great to think that further generations will have all of this to look forward to.”

Councillors were given a glimpse of proposed street furniture that would be given a streamlined look to reflect the town’s aeronautical history.

Approved proposals to redesign Farnborough Business Park were also displayed, while it was hinted that PC World may leave the area upon reaching the end of its lease.

Brian Fyfe, chairman of The Farnborough Society (TFS) said he detected ‘the winds of change for Farnborough’, but raised concerns that the council had not considered all options to improve the town.

Speaking outside the meeting, he said: “TFS is of the view that we need to install more arts and culture into the evening economy, so it is not just restaurants and cinemas, and covers the whole spectrum. We believe there is an opportunity to do that.

“The community in Farnborough is wide and varied – people would want to come out and see what is put on (in terms of arts and culture). We can see examples of this because people are having to travel to Aldershot and Farnham. We believe there is a real demand.

“Farnborough is a magnet, and we could be turned on. Farnborough needs to be more than it is at the moment.”

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Most recent user comments 5 of 5

We do not need another cinema now that others have been built so nearby (e.g. Camberley). Making better use of existing local facilities would be a better approach, such as getting the Tumbly back as a music venue pub. If anything is built in Farnborough as an alternative to pubs, something like a bowling alley would be of more use than another cinema.

AC2009
18/12/2012 at 08:43

Whatever they do, they need to get on with it. I'm fed up with hearing new plans with this or that, make a decision and get on with it. The more messing around the less likely that new businesses will be attracted to or staying in Farnborough. It's no good the owners of the Meads holding out for "House Hold Names" to populate their empty stores when small local businesses are being prevented from moving to larger stores when they want to expand! The small businesses will fill stores attract more shoppers and therefore attract more businesses

Jaxxman, Farnborough
24/11/2012 at 20:06

@ BlisteringBarnacles! , Sheffield / Farnborough Bang on the nail. Yes we do need a cultural centre the Tumble down could provide that with a bar and a resturant proviing good qualit food, it could possably run in conjunction with the Farnborough Tech catering course (and help our own local Masterchefs). Quality accomodation close to a main line station geared to local buisiness would have a high occupancy. The Venue could be used as an cultural centre to promote music, art and drama. I travel a great deal and some times have to think which town centre I am in due to being surrounded by the same old brands and logo's, this would be a great oppotunity to allow some independent shops into the town centre to bring a variaty of products that are different to the run of the mill goods provided in every town centre, this would give people an incentive to come and shop in farnborough for something different far from taking sales from the multinationals it would increase footfall in the town centre from which they would benefit.

UKR
23/11/2012 at 10:10

"3 or 4 restaurants". Wow. That's really pushing the boat out. In my books that practically is "a couple". North Camp has somewhere more than 10 restaurants and it's not even really a town centre as such.

Let me guess, the "3 or 4" will be somewhere along the lines of Nando's, Frankie and Benny's, the stupid Tumbledown MaccyD's and a Wagamama or Bella Italia.

If you just put in the same old stuff that every other town has of course you can never aspire to attract outsiders. I too don't think that Farnborough should be the new Guildford, but it could specialise in one thing, say the arts, as per TFS and get visitors from around the area, as well as providing excellent cultural facilities for the town. At the moment, despite having a rich heritage and large and diverse population, Farnborough is a cultural desert and that is completely unnecessary. The town has amateur dramatics societies, dance troupes and great young musicians, not to mention its own symphony orchestra, yet there is nowhere for them to perform and show off their talent to the rest of the community.

BlisteringBarnacles! , Sheffield / Farnborough
22/11/2012 at 19:35

Well the first thing they can do is stop McDonalds putting the independent traders in Firgrove court out of business. Losing Zaffrons and the TDD in favour of a drive through McDonalds is not necessary when they would have a better site at the outgoing police station. It's time for RBC to show it's teeth.