East Cowes Masterplan: A Wealth of Opportunity

Planning application model.

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West Cowes is synonymous with the glamorous world of yachting when it hosts Cowes Week each summer, the world's oldest regatta. On the other side of the harbour, however, East Cowes is a distinctly different town.

Wages in East Cowes are 25% lower than the national average; two of the Medina Estuary wards are among the 20% most deprived in England and East Cowes's industries of ship, aeroplane and hovercraft building are in decline. The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) stepped in when another large employer closed down in 2003, taking 750 jobs with it. SEEDA purchased the waterfront site and commissioned a competition to produce a masterplan for East Cowes that would address the problems of the town's dwindling economy and the congestion created by the Red Funnel Ferry terminal and marshalling yards that dominate the centre.

LDA Design won the competition and since then we have been working with SEEDA and local stakeholders to produce a new vision for East Cowes. We developed an ambitious masterplan demonstrating how relocating the ferry terminal could create the opportunity to build a ‘new' town centre. The plan opened up space on the waterfront for housing, restaurants and hotels, among other activities.

Care has been taken to ensure that the rebuilt streets will be in scale with the ‘grain' of the town and all existing buildings of merit would be kept. The character of a working waterfront should also be maintained and its uses will include marine related employment, boatyards, a Maritime Heritage Experience, leisure facilities and eventually, it is hoped, a marina. The plans seek to balance 550 mixed tenure dwellings and 500-700 jobs within an environment that reduces car-reliance and encourages alternative modes of travel.

Our masterplan for East Cowes has achieved planning consent and we have followed it up by developing a set of design codes and continuing to advise SEEDA and English Partnerships (now HCA) on the project and its delivery. A number of businesses have already shown an interest in the town as a result of the masterplan, including a major high quality food retailer. With such potential investors the delivery of a high quality regeneration scheme looks set to become a reality.