£3m Castle Green revamp unveiled

7:00pm Friday 28th September 2012 in News

Site foreman Rob Dunn, Cllr John Williams and Ian Franklin beside the lawn Buy this photo » Site foreman Rob Dunn, Cllr John Williams and Ian Franklin beside the lawn

A FORMER car park converted into a civic space at a cost of £3million is set to stage events and act as a tranquil place for people to relax.

You’ll be able to judge for yourself from today (September 28) what you think of the new-look Castle Green after the builders’ fences came down and workmen moved off site.

It boasts a raised lawn, trees and herbaceous borders, a hard landscaped area in high-quality natural stone, and seating.

A glass-sided bridge, connecting the area to Goodland Gardens, will be lit up after dark.

Taunton Deane Council leader Cllr John Williams said: “Seeing it come to completion reinforces why the decision was made in the first place.

“It’s going to be a lovely square set in the historic heart of Taunton, showing off the wonderful buildings which surround it.

Ian Franklin, of Project Taunton, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic. I love it. It’s a connection from the Brewhouse along the river to Castle Green.”

The scheme not been without its detractors.

District councillor Ian Morrell: “The £3million cost and lack of car parking is regrettable, but Castle Green, if used properly, could become a town centre social amenity.”

Comments(23)

souwesterly says...
9:20pm Fri 28 Sep 12

“.......if used properly, could become a town centre social amenity.”
Haha!! What a joke!
Who's going to use that space?
Guaranteed, the first event there will be rained upon - and so will many others, given the wetter summers we're having now.
It'll be a useful place for drop-outs, druggies, the drunks and the louts to loiter and leave their rubbish.
They'll get turfed off when there's an event - only to all hang around and occupy the seating that's for the spectators.
Perhaps it could be arranged that all charity collectors and other touts could only be allowed to do their business there - so we can see them all in action at once.
And I seriously can't imagine any thespians really wanting to put on a play there.
How about once a month all civic bigwigs should be gathered there so that we can pelt them with suitable objects? That's the best use I can see for this expensive bit of grass.
*
All in all a typical "civic pride" waste of taxpayers money.

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Guy Smiley says...
10:10pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Such short memories. Let's go back to the days when the "Parade" was a horrid one-way rotunda around the isolated alcoholics' island of the Market House. Let's go back to the days of the Light Bob when the town centre was dead.

Come on. Taunton is leagues ahead of other towns. TDBC have created a wonderful town centre. Please visit other similarly sized Towns and then come back to make comment. Maidstone, Swindon, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Etc.

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Dr Dave says...
7:51am Sat 29 Sep 12

Now all they've got to do is get some decent retail outlets in the town centre that sell decent quality clothes etc that many want - but have to travel to Exeter/Bristol at present to do so. (If you can be bothered to endure the plethora of traffic signals and the resulting traffic queues to get into Taunton town centre, that is.........)

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pintomine says...
8:15am Sat 29 Sep 12

What a waste of money. John Williams is a disaster for Taunton and the sooner he goes the better.

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GrumpyNewsReader says...
9:32am Sat 29 Sep 12

Will they keep the grass cut? Or will it go the same ways as the verges?

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Somerset_BTGOG says...
9:34am Sat 29 Sep 12

It should have been a hard standing area that could have held an outdoor market twice a week like they have in Wells, oh and the rest of the time it could have been a car park!

£3million!!!!!

For some grass and a new wall.

Where has the money gone?

It might be worth someone requesting a breakdown of figures using the Freedom of Information Act.

Come on Somerset County Gazette do some real reporting and find out who has pocketed all this money.

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tauntontonbuff says...
10:55am Sat 29 Sep 12

And there was me thinking that the local council's had to save money wherever they could. £3m for a lawn - excellent value!!!

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CosApp says...
2:49pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Just need some green spaces in town for motorists to park on now the council have closed yet another car park. You can see what they are up to - close town centre car parks, propose the building of student accomodation on another when an ideal building is being vacated by Debenhams, decimate the high street shops and drive people to the proposed shopping developments which they no doubt have an interest in.

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FreeSpeech? says...
3:32pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Love the steps all the way round, great for wheel chairs.
What a complete and utter waste of money & i bet the only ones smiling are the planners, architects & contractors.

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Thurza says...
7:53pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Total waste of money especially when so many services are being cut, and it seemed to take rather a long time to complete. I dislike Taunton for shopping, too many empty shops in the town and too many 'Chuggers'.

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boliston says...
3:35pm Sun 30 Sep 12

The castle green area certainly seems to look better now there is a modern glass bridge connecting it with Goodland Gardens. It was really a bit of an eyesore when it was just a car park! Surface level parking in town centres is just wasted space when you look at places like Bath where it's mainly underground and not wasting space. Hopefully they will remove the eyesore parking from Coal Orchard riverside as well and get rid of through traffic from the parade.

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Paul A says...
9:34pm Sun 30 Sep 12

What a great idea about underground car parks. There is a large one under County Hall which could be made available to the public. Then the people killing off car parks can join the same queue as the rest of us.

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*Flick* says...
9:58am Mon 1 Oct 12

£3million for that lawn? You have got to be kidding? The council think that a LAWN is the best thing to spend £3million on? The mind boggles...

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Gem64 says...
12:00pm Mon 1 Oct 12

What a complete waste of local peoples money, I can just picture this area on a warm sunny day, it will be a magnet to Drunks,Druggies and idiots in general. Who will Police this area? the already over stretched Police Officers and PCSO's. I can't wait to see the damage to the stones, caused by Skateboards and BMX bikes, this is a joke and a waste of my money and an explanation would be much appreciated.

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Mi_Coc says...
1:26pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Shows how out of touch the public sector are with the real world were you have to make money rather than spend it.

Get rid of carpark that makes money and spend 3 million on a lawn. Its amazing should of all be shot. The longer this country spends money it doesnt have on things we dont need I wonder whether hitler had the right idea. We can;t do the basics like look after the elderly and clean the streets but can spend 3 m on this.

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johnbks says...
2:54pm Tue 2 Oct 12

It's all so predictible! Tauntonians are so negative about everything. No wonder the town has fallen so far behind eg Exeter, where people are so much more supportive of efforts to improve their environment - and look what's been achieved there!. Or is it just that only the grumblers and malcontents bother to post comments on this website. I am no great supporter of this Council but am so glad that they are determined to push ahead with Project Taunton despite views such as these.

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souwesterly says...
4:15pm Tue 2 Oct 12

johnbks says...2:54pm Tue 2 Oct 12
".......Tauntonians are so negative......"
*
We're not entirely negative - it just often seems to be the case that the council 'do things' without our general approval. I know they have 'consultations' and 'open days' to view their projects but not everyone can find the time or have the inclination to visit the displays or attend the meetings - and attendance isn't liable to change a 'rubber-stamped' civic dignitaries pet project...
Project Taunton is also happening at a time of great austerity - when everything around it is being cut back - but lavish sums are being 'wasted', or so it seems, on plans that were approved years ago.
Much of Project Taunton is great - but the Firepool area, for example is, at least until the world's economy picks up again, a white elephant that'll blight Taunton for years.
Overall, given a continued period of prosperity, Project Taunton would have been fantastic......in 'good times' even this £3 million lawn would have had out support, I think.
It's just bad luck that the economy nose-dived at the wrong time for this Project.
So at present we're all watching piles of our money being frittered away, when we, the public are having to watch every penny.....and we, perhaps justifiably, object.
(Not to mention the fact that there are many better things that Castle Square could have been used for instead)

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johnbks says...
7:04pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Nice to read a well argued comment, with which it is difficult to disagree! I would only say that as you probably know the £ 3 million was Central Gov't money that would have been unlikely to have been reallocated to Taunton. I guess it's just that I've seen Taunton town centre stagnate over several decades now and much of that has been a result of vested interests and naysayers resisting progress, so, with money allocated for Project Taunton, let's embrace it.

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meekmeek says...
8:26pm Wed 3 Oct 12

im all for new projects, as long as the projects also think beyond spending the money. EG having something that has actual function, including planning events or uses of the project afterwards.

E.G the viridor offices opposite the cricket ground. viridor own and manage acres of land near the priorswood dump. that would have been a better place to organise placing the building.. first level be what is the recycling centre. then just build offices ontop the recycling centres roof.

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FreeSpeech? says...
9:50pm Wed 3 Oct 12

meekmeek wrote:
im all for new projects, as long as the projects also think beyond spending the money. EG having something that has actual function, including planning events or uses of the project afterwards.

E.G the viridor offices opposite the cricket ground. viridor own and manage acres of land near the priorswood dump. that would have been a better place to organise placing the building.. first level be what is the recycling centre. then just build offices ontop the recycling centres roof.
Yeh but the bosses wouldn't be able to see the cricket from the top floor if the offices were in Priorswood would they, of course i may be being a little critical of their motives for building the carbuncle that is their HQ in that location but it sure as hell wasn't designed to please the eye was it.

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tf1123 says...
9:53pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Paul A wrote:
What a great idea about underground car parks. There is a large one under County Hall which could be made available to the public. Then the people killing off car parks can join the same queue as the rest of us.
What about the people who work in County Hall? Where are they going to park :\

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FreeSpeech? says...
10:11pm Wed 3 Oct 12

tf1123 wrote:
Paul A wrote:
What a great idea about underground car parks. There is a large one under County Hall which could be made available to the public. Then the people killing off car parks can join the same queue as the rest of us.
What about the people who work in County Hall? Where are they going to park :\
Well they can pay like all the private sector workers have to.

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boliston says...
12:12am Thu 4 Oct 12

meekmeek wrote:
im all for new projects, as long as the projects also think beyond spending the money. EG having something that has actual function, including planning events or uses of the project afterwards.

E.G the viridor offices opposite the cricket ground. viridor own and manage acres of land near the priorswood dump. that would have been a better place to organise placing the building.. first level be what is the recycling centre. then just build offices ontop the recycling centres roof.
Great way to add to the town's congestion problems as all those office workers decide it's too far out of town to walk or cycle.

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