#Beeston2020Vision

Having lived all of my life in or around Beeston I have witnessed and experienced first-hand the highs and lows Beeston has experienced over the years.

I remember being proud to say I lived in Beeston. Over more recent years I feel other suburbs have overtaken it as a destination or place of desirability. It hasn’t fully ever recovered from the damage of the tram works.

My vision for Beeston is something that puts us back on the map for our kids and grandkids to once again be proud of.

In order to achieve this, we need to look at accessibility for all ages, safe footpaths and cycleways so that youngsters feel safe walking and cycling to the town. We already have a great location we need to utilise it, especially being so close to the M1. The tram is a fantastic start to this but we also need to remember people will always want to drive as close to their destination as possible, it’s human nature, so we need to maintain car parks, both short stay and long stay. Road planning should consider routes reserved for busses and pedal bicycles - helping ease traffic issues and improving road safety for the cyclists.

Once the access and travel arrangements have been sorted, we need to give people a reason to visit. Remember the "if you build it, they will come” slogan? Beeston has to become an attractive place people to visit. We need to give people a reason to visit Beeston again. Hopefully the cinema will help with this and give a new lease of life to the square but it again needs that USP. More events and use of the public parks and spaces would be excellent - allowing private organisations to promote something for the community in these areas would be great. Businesses and companies should be incentivised for coming to Beeston. There are far too many closed/empty shops, many of those occupied are often duplicates of the same category of shop a few doors away. We need to attract some of the larger brands once more.

Rodney Rouse

September 2020

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