Improving your town centre
We have been transforming Dartford town centre to make it a fantastic place to live, work and enjoy for future generations.
We've overhauled the High Street, turned One Bell Corner into a celebration of Dartford's own Rolling Stones, upgraded the area around the war memorial, improved street lighting, removed the unused subway at Instone Road and removed redundant bus stands in Market Street to create Brewery Square, a vibrant pedestrianised area with space for events and entertainment,.
There's plenty of work to come to improve transport, movement and the appearance of the public areas. Read on to see the aims of the scheme, what we've achieved so far, and keep up to date with all upcoming works.
The key objectives of this scheme are to:
- Provide a sustainable, accessible, high quality and competitive town centre
- Create civic spaces facilitating community cohesion
- Reduce local car travel by residents and workers in the immediate vicinity of the town centre to improve air quality levels
- Provide more green spaces including planters and additional trees
- Improve connectivity between the town centre and residential areas on foot and by cycle
- Reduce journey times for cyclists, pedestrians and public transport users
- Improve traffic flows and reliability of journey times through the town centre
- Simplify bus stop locations and improve connectivity between bus stops and the heart of the town centre
- Create a high quality environment for residents and visitors and to encourage investment
Why are we making these changes
- Dartford is experiencing considerable growth in employment and housing.
- The project is being progressed to support the high quality transformation of Central Dartford and its identification as an area of regeneration delivering needed housing. The scheme will maintain the current highway network, and create an attractive public space to help the growth.
Funding and further details
The Dartford Town Centre scheme is being funded largely from government grants and developer contributions. £4.3 million Local Growth Fund (SELEP) has been allocated to the project, with a further £7.7million provided by the Homes and Community Agency plus contributions from developers in and around the town centre. Dartford Borough Council are contributing the remaining funding for the scheme.