Penrith town centre could become a “pedestrian friendly zone” on summer Saturdays as part of a bid to attract more shoppers.
Darren Broad, chair of Penrith Business Improvement District (BID), outlined plans for the future at the town council’s annual electors’ meeting on Monday.
“Looking ahead and at how the high street has changed, events will be key to bringing visitors to Penrith and the community together — we must do something different,” said Mr Broad.
What the BID wants to do is “explore the town centre as a pedestrian friendly zone” on a key trading day for businesses, which will be Saturday.
“We want to open a conversation with our partners, including the town council, to debate the viability of doing a test — where we make the town centre pedestrian friendly between the hours of 10am and 4pm on a Saturday throughout the summer. To do that we have to give people a reason to come to town as well,” said Mr Broad.
“On each Saturday, we would plan a mini event to happen in the town centre — creating that reason for people to come into Penrith — and while they are here obviously they can support the businesses.
“But to make this work every partner is going to need to be quite open minded. We have got to get them to think differently.
“We have to get them to, I would say, take a risk as well, because when you do something new it is about taking risks and also about bringing something to the table.
“I think one organisation (alone) can’t make this happen, it is going to be a group of organisations that make it happen.”
Mr Broad also said BID was exploring the possibility of a new event — Penrith Goes Yellow — for the start of the visitor season.
“That is going to involve planting thousands of daffodils around all the green spaces in Penrith, making Penrith go yellow and creating an event around that,” said Mr Broad.
In the past a Penrith Goes Orange initiative has taken place, linked to the world-famous marmalade festival at Dalemain, Ullswater, but the hope is that Penrith Goes Yellow, which would take place across a weekend, would create a lasting legacy for the town, said Mr Broad.
Expanding on what a pedestrian friendly test for Penrith might look like, Mr Broad explained on social media that the BID wants to explore the possibility of using an area large enough to hold a small event or attraction, but still keep roads open where possible.
He stressed that major traffic routes would not be affected by the plan.
Mr Broad added that it will take a lot of planning to get it right, but Penrith must do something different for it to survive — or risk becoming a “ghost town”.
