Students weigh in to debate over Hexham bus station

May 13 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

“The students have produced proposals that are worthy of taking forward for detailed development,” said Georgia Giannopoulou, MA urban design degree programme director at the university.

After approaches by Hexham Civic Society, the students were asked to visit the town and suggest improvements.

“The bus station is not maximising the site’s potential for the town centre, nor is it the ideal site for such a use due to its confined nature,” said Miss Giannopoulou.

“This could be a fantastic opportunity for Hexham to revitalise its image. It’s a desirable place to live but the high street is looking run down.”

The students have been working on the project with urban designer Roger Higgins, a Newcastle University graduate who is now part of Carlisle Renaissance.

He said: “This is a complex and sensitive site at the heart of a fine-grained, historic market town.

“While the council initially looked to develop just the bus station site, we helped create a brief which asked students to look at the wider picture and to think about using the site to bring about a broader set of improvements.

“I understand that following this project, the council is now taking a much broader approach and hopefully will come up with a real-life solution as sensitive and imaginative as the students have put forward.”

Civic society chairman Tim Tatman said that a priority was to draw shoppers from supermarkets on the edge of the town centre into the core to support smaller shops there.

“The bus station has been there since the 1930s but bus operators say the site is not now big enough to operate safely and facilities are also poor,” he said.