BirkenEd’s Place – w/c 2nd January
10th January 2023
On Wednesday 4th January, BirkenEd’s Place opened its doors again to the public after being closed for the holidays. The PLACED team have been thrilled to welcome you back and see many friendly familiar faces as we enter another three months of exciting engagement activities and events in BirkenEd’s Place. The people of Birkenhead have helped us make an impactful start to the year already, sharing with us their passion for their town and the different challenges and opportunities they see for St Werburgh’s and Birkenhead Town Centre.
Our first day back in the space after the holidays was busy and filled with many meaningful conversations and, on Thursday 5th January, we were delighted to welcome MP for Birkenhead Mick Whitley to BirkenEd’s Place. This was also the day that we hosted some successful engagement events for St Werburgh’s and Birkenhead Town Centre developments. Architect Mark Braund of BDP led a walking tour and gave a presentation in the evening, giving attendees an overview of the St Werburgh’s and Birkenhead Town Centre developments. Both events went very well – in particular, our presentation evening with Mark was a rich and productive discussion described by one attendee as “inspiring”. Plans for St Werburgh’s and Birkenhead Town Centre seek to improve the quality of shops, workspaces, and places to eat and drink, and include the proposal for a new Birkenhead Market, creating a sustainable new community at the heart of the town, with market businesses, independent shops, food and drink, and creative industries along with residential uses. There is still some time left to view the plans for St Werburgh’s and Birkenhead Town Centre and have your say on these. We have another guided walking tour for these projects on Saturday 14th January (13:30-14:45pm) that you can book onto here.
If you did not visit us in the week before we closed for Christmas, there are some newer additions to the space that you might be interested to see such as our Birkenhead 2040 Framework timeline, which details all the major milestones in Wirral Council’s framework for the transformational regeneration of Birkenhead – an ambitious twenty-year plan that sets out the most radical proposals for the town since the 1947 Town Plan. We also have an evaluation table by the doorway now, so when you visit BirkenEd’s Place, please do put here your thoughts on the space and any other comments or feedback you would like to share with us. We are delighted to hear that, since we opened back in November, 95% of our visitors have enjoyed spending their time at BirkenEd’s Place and the majority have felt able to share their views.
Thank you to all our volunteers, ambassadors and design team colleagues who have supported us in the space this week – Mark Braund, Ian Greaves, Luke Bithell, Kate Pierce, Becca Gray, Lesley West, Hannah Austin, and Ellie Bichard-Collins.