Joined up thinking needed for town

1. The High Street/Jury Street traffic problem

2. A primary source of visitors must be those attracted to the castle, circa, 800,000 per annum, one of the largest in Europe.

3. The town’s principal shopping and entertainment areas lie apart – the Swan Street/ Market Place area and the Smith St area – both of which are away from the actual centre of the town (the Court House) where the Tourist Office is located.

1. The traffic problem. The removal of ‘through’ traffic in both directions on High Street and Jury Street must make a difference. High Street should be made ‘one-way’ in an easterly direction as far as the Court House and should be directed up Church Street (one way to the north). Jury Street should be made ‘one-way’ in an westerly direction as far as the Court House and should be directed up Church Street (one way to the north).

Through traffic from the east would have to travel via Theatre Street; likewise, through traffic from the west would have to travel via Theatre Street.

2 & 3. The relative location of the town’s two shopping areas together with town centre (the Court House). We should ‘link up’ these three areas, given that a large potential source of visitors, who are on our doorstep, and could approach from Castle Street. Today, they would first encounter the frequent ‘wall of traffic’ at the Church Street/High Street/Jury Street junction. This must be addressed.

This ‘link up’ should be achieved by establishing a ‘launch pad’ for the visitors in order to direct them to (a) the shopping areas, (b) the historic town buildings and (c) the guided walk around the town.

The ‘launch pad’ or visitors centre should be located in the Pageant House and should include: the tourist office; a café (restaurant) using the gardens in the summer; a ‘lively’ exhibition celebrating Warwick’s industrial and social legacy (not forgetting that Warwick is for Warwickians as well as visitors). This might include The Henry VIII charities (and others), the Cape Engineering Company, the Austin Edwards Film Company, the Nelsons Gelatine Company, the Donald Healey Motor Company, the Avon Bodies Motor Company and, as a social legacy, the story of the Turpin family.

And finally, the town should make use of its biggest asset. Which is that it is located near the centre of this country and is a little over one hours driving time for 50 per cent of the UK population (30 million people).

In order to make use of this asset it must attract one of the great retailers in the world to set up shop, be they from the UK, USA, Japan, Australia, China or Europe. The town has some formidable buildings available in Northgate Street which could be adapted for a large retail enterprise and which would then attract a plethora of specialist retailers from all over the country seeking premises. The town would then have a shopping utopia! - Sam Nelson, via email.