Newport residents invited to have their say on ‘60 Big Ideas’ to transform city

Newport residents are being invited to give their views on “60 Big Ideas” to transform the city.

The ideas have been developed from suggestions made by residents as a starting point for Newport City Centre’s new Placemaking Masterplan, which aims to make the city a better place to live, work, and visit.

Placemaking masterplans are long-term strategic approaches to shaping public spaces that harness the ideas and priorities of the people who use it.

Museum

Some of the initial “60 Big Ideas” include building a new museum to house the medieval ship, creating more homes in the city centre, or establishing a rock festival to celebrate Newport’s musical heritage.

The ideas were developed after a summer of extensive public engagement sessions which sought to understand existing attitudes and perspectives towards the city centre.

More than 1,700 people responded across community workshops, focus groups, public drop-in sessions and digital surveys.

The Placemaking Plan has been supported by the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns Regeneration Capital Development Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

“Achievable”

Councillor James Clarke, the city council’s cabinet member for regeneration and democratic services, said: “Some amazing ideas have been put forward by residents and communities and we are grateful to all those who participated.

“A few of them are things would require resources that are beyond us, at the moment, but many others could be achievable with support from the private and public sector even if the council could not deliver them itself.”

He added: “We want to hear from the public about what they think of the big ideas. This will all feed into the plan which will hopefully give us a roadmap, and realistic timetable, of how the city centre can become a place where even more people will want to visit, live and work in.”

The full list of 60 big ideas can be found here

The online survey can be found here