T10WN COUNCIL
Summary and review of the
Ryde Place Plan
!Revised Version 3.0
Mar,ch2024
The Ryde Place Plan was originally published in January 2020. It was produced by Arc Consulting, at the request of Ryde Town Council and the Isle of Wight Council. In June 2020 two annexes were published, one considering the immediate implications of the Covid pandemic, which began soon after the Plan was published, and the other looking in more detail at proposed expansion at the south-eastern edge of the town.
The Plan has provided a valuable basis for planning and development in Ryde over the last four years and has helped Ryde acquire financial and other support. However, many changes have taken place since it was published. Much of the Plan remains valid but there is a need to update it.
The purpose of this document is to provide a summary of the original Plan and to indicate the main changes that have occurred. This revised and summarised version is intended to inform and guide future planning activities, including the revision of Ryde Town Council’s Position Statement and Corporate Plan and the allocation of the £20 million that Ryde will receive over the next ten years as part of the Government’s Levelling Up programme.
Each part includes a brief summary of the Plan, followed (in italics) by a note of the main changes that have occurred since the Plan was published.
What does the preceding Plan say?
The Place Plan provides an overview of the town, highlighting both its assets and strengths and its deficits and challenges. It notes that:
The town has an important historic, architectural and cultural heritage and is a centre of cultural activity.
It includes valuable natural resources, including many protected ecological sites on land and along the seashore.
The ‘heart of the town’ is the Esplanade and Town Centre, which combine retail and tourist activity.
There are also a number of small economic centres within residential areas, which have their own character.
There are many organisations providing community support and advice.
However:
There is a shortage of public green spaces.
The town has some of the highest levels of poverty and deprivation, both on the Island and nationally.
It also has relatively high levels of crime, homelessness and mental health issues.
The road infrastructure is inadequate and there are conflicts between vehicle and pedestrian use, especially on the Esplanade.
Proposals for additional residential and other development in the town, especially the proposed expansion of the south- eastern edge, will create economic and social challenges, especially in terms of infrastructure.
The preceding Plan also summarises issues, concerns and priorities expressed by Ryde residents in various consultations. They include:
Retain and develop the Esplanade as public open space.
Improve critical road junctions, including that on the seafront, and public transport within the town.
Encourage or demand more cooperation from public transport operators.
Ensure that key public assets, such as the Town Hall, Arena and harbour, are maintained or brought back into community use.
Improve the public realm on the Esplanade and in the Town Centre.
Tackle problems of poverty, deprivation and ill health
Reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.
Improve facilities for young people.
Increase employment opportunities.
Avoid overdevelopment.
What has changed?
Most of the above remains valid. However, there have been some significant changes, notably:
Problems of poverty, deprivation, homelessness and mental health have increased, due to the combined effects of Covid and the cost of living crisis.
There is uncertainty regarding the extent and nature of future development on the south-eastern edge of the town following the collapse of plans for Pennyfeathers and lack of resources to develop the Nicholson Road site.
The High Street Heritage Action Zone project is improving the public realm in the High Street.
The Interchange project has transformed the transport situation on the Esplanade.
Ryde Town Council has acquired and developed the Marina and adjacent land.
The growth of new sports and activities on Appley Beach
The success of the Wight Wave beach soccer.
Department has secured funding to form a new cultural space in the heart of Ryde.
What does the preceding Plan say?
The preceding Plan identified three main sets of issues, or ‘themes’ to be addressed:
The poor quality of the ‘fabric’ of the town, including lack of public green space, transport problems, derelict historic buildings and the challenges created by the proposed expansion of the town.
The basic structural or ‘foundational’ characteristics of the town, including positive ones such as its architectural, cultural and natural heritage and its sense of identity, and negative ones such as poverty, deprivation and inequality and the dominance of transport operators.
Weak governance, including Ryde Town Council’s limited powers over assets and services provided by the Isle of Wight Council, lack of an overall strategy to guide the allocation of local public investment (especially the Town Council’s grants) and the tendency for public opinion to be negative rather than constructive.
What has changed?
The first two themes remain largely valid, although, as noted above, the relative importance of specific issues has changed somewhat, due to the changes noted in Part 2. For example, poverty and deprivation have become of greater concern, while the main problem regarding the expansion of the town is probably now the uncertainty rather than the scale.
Improvements are being seen through the recent allocation of grant funding to the Ryde HAZ, levelling up funding and the identification of the Island as a priority arts funding area.
There have, however, been significant changes regarding the third theme. The ‘balance of power’ between Ryde Town Council and the Isle of Wight Council has shifted considerably, due to the combination of Ryde Town Council’s expansion and more proactive approach and the Isle of Wight Council’s financial pressures. Ryde Town Council is now responsible, directly or indirectly through financial contributions, for many more assets and services and is in a stronger bargaining position. Moreover, the Town Council has strategies and plans to guide investment and is working more closely with other community organisations. Part 3 provides more details about these
What does the preceding Plan say?
The preceding Plan identifies five challenges and five solutions to address these challenges.
The challenges are to:
Have a ‘place-based’ vision, driven by the Town Council and shared by a partnership of local organisations.
Reduce the dominance of transport and transport operators (including Island Roads), which has a negative impact on the public realm, especially green space.
Increase the impact of the Town Council’s grant funding on the long- term quality of the town’s public realm and the wellbeing of its community.
Influence the nature and scale of the town’s urban expansion.
Harness the town’s natural and social capital for the benefit of the community, particularly to address the problems of poverty and deprivation.
The proposed solutions are to:
Produce a ‘manifesto for Ryde’, which expands the Town Council’s existing vision statement and reflects the key issues and concerns identified in the Place Plan. This should provide the basis for establishing partnership agreements or memoranda of understanding between the Town Council and other organisations, including a transport partnership, a regeneration partnership and a health and wellbeing partnership.
Establish a ‘third sector compact’, in order to coordinate and the activities of the various community and voluntary organisations in the town and ensure that financial and other support is used in the most effective way.
Establish a new Ryde Town Board to manage the proposed allocation of £20,000,000 of levelling up funding.
Identify a network of projects to enhance the public realm in specific parts of the town, connected to each other and the proposed south-east extension by walking and cycleways. Six specific areas or zones are identified: High Street, St Thomas’, Esplanade, Appley, Monkton Village, and Oakvale.
‘Social enterprise zones’ should be established to coordinate economic investment by public, private and community enterprises within specific areas. Six such zones are identified: High Street and St Thomas, Central Esplanade, Appley and Puckpool, Rink Road and Monkton Street, Nicholson Road, and Westridge.
What has changed?
The above challenges are still valid. However, one might add the additional one of addressing the problems created by the Covid pandemic and cost of living crisis, which have affected individuals, communities and organisations. The demands on public and community services have increased significantly, while the financial and administrative resources to meet this demand have diminished.
In terms of the solutions, some progress has been made. In particular:
Ryde Town Council has, as suggested in the Plan, produced a manifesto. It is known as the Charter for Ryde and incorporates the key principles in the Place Plan.
The Town Council has also produced a Corporate Plan, which sets out how the Council will achieve the objectives in the Charter and provides a basis for the allocation of financial and other resources.
The Council has improved its relationship with the Isle of Wight Council, but despite many requests, has yet to have a formal memorandum of understanding with it. It also has a good relationship with Hovertravel and has established a memorandum of understanding with Portsmouth University.
The Council has helped to establish the Ryde Forum, an informal group of local organisations involved in community welfare activities. It also employs a Community Development Officer, who coordinates such activities and chairs the Forum.
The Council has reformed its grant allocation policy along the lines suggested in the Place Plan and has obtained funding to support the most vulnerable members of the community.
The Interchange project has addressed some of the concerns regarding transport on the Esplanade, and the Town Council has identified the Esplanade as a priority area for further development and investment.
Additional funds have been acquired through the High Street Heritage Action Zone project to complete the regeneration of the street.
The Town Council has acquired St Thomas Church and is renovating it for use by the town’s youth service, Network Ryde. It has also facilitated the establishment of a charitable trust to explore ways of acquiring and renovating the Town Hall.
What does the Plan say?
The plan concludes as follows:
‘In plans and policies for 15 years and more, Ryde is the town ‘most likely to succeed’. Its extraordinary setting, the depth and breadth of its cultural and natural content, its public assets, its architectural beauty, its role as both Island destination and Island gateway, and the active participation of its community in so much of its shared and civic life, are all the ingredients for success. Yet Ryde’s great potential to deliver the commonwealth of public wellbeing that it promises remains unfulfilled. This is not for want of resolution or conviction, there are so many individuals, groups and organizations committed to the town. It seems truer to say that what is needed is that single focus of purpose, consistently and repeatedly applied, and designed to be effectively shared between agents and across sectors.
‘A catalyst is needed for change, and there has never been such active chemistry in Ryde as now. The focus on regeneration, the evolving Island Plan, projects for public estate and buildings, national funding successes and the award of Biosphere, are all overlapping and interacting.
‘There is a unique opportunity now, in the hands of the Town Council, to set in motion a plan that will celebrate the distinctive characteristics of place while demanding the best of the new, so that quality and authenticity adds richness to a life in Ryde.’
What has changed?
Ryde Town Council has taken up the above challenge and in the four years since the Place Plan was published, considerable progress has been made to realise the town’s potential. There is still a long way to go but we are heading in the right direction. New challenges have emerged but so have new resources. We are about to enter an exciting new stage in the town’s development, with the award of government funding under its Levelling Up programme.