Project: Water Street Environment Improvements
Location: Bury
Value: £50k

This site on a busy corner had housed workshops and garages now long derelict and the Local Authority determined to make the best use of the small area both to improve the streetscape and conditions for the sheltered housing adjacent. It also sought to ameliorate the nuisance being caused by outside drinkers from the public house opposite by providing somewhere for people to sit that looked cared for and therefore less likely to be the source of anti-social behaviour. The remains of buildings were demolished, 2-3 meter high brick walls constructed to prevent pedestrian traffic through the site, a raised planter incorporating garden gates were installed as a buffer between the front yards of the adjacent housing and the site. Planting in the planter was designed to afford privacy for residents. The simple design creating a raised platform which could be used as informal seating rather than benches was built with a small strip of blue resin bound glass along the edge to provide visual interest and definition and a single ornamental tree was planted on the platform with the surrounding walls rendered white to create a contrasting backdrop. The front of the site next to the road was maintained as mown grass.