Leysdown Regeneration Plan
Leysdown RoseTinted
Funded by the Sea Change Programme and driven by Swale Borough Council, Leysdown Rose-tinted Vision has been developed by artist Rosa Ainley and Muf Architecture. It is an ambitious approach to urban renewal with arts as the driving force for the transformational change and economic uplift in Leysdown.
Projects have been developed to both reflect and build on work done in Leysdown to date. Leysdown Rose-tinted transforms Leysdown by making it more itself, by working with people who live, work and visit there.
Click here to view the Rose Tinted brochure.
Project Progress
Project Officer Louise Francis and Laura Knight from FrancisKnight Arts Consultants were appointed by Swale Borough Council in December 2009 to take the project forward.
A new steering group has been set up and meets quarterly. The group consists of traders, parish and borough councillors, an artist and representatives from the PCT and Greening the Gateway.
Several projects have taken steps forward including:
Spinney Linear Rose Garden
Varieties of roses will be planted to bloom throughout much of the year on the Spinney, to create both an air of abundance and a lavish scent to the area and the entrance to the village. The colour palette developed for the rose garden will becomes Leysdown-specific, for use in revamping Promenade fascias, signage and the local environment. The Rose Garden will be designed and selected by drawing on Rose-tinted watercolour workshops with a rose specialist and local gardening enthusiasts.
Can-do Signage
Leysdown’s landscape and surroundings are punctuated with prohibitory signage. In its place ‘can-do’ signs will inform residents and visitors of what they can do. For example, how far they might walk or cycle to do some bird watching, how long a circular bike ride back to the spinney might take.
The wording for the signs will be devised with the help of a writer in residence, working among and alongside local people to explore their place in and around Leysdown. The signs will be both informative and whimsical picking up on the hidden treasures in the Village, making more of what already exists and showing the same care and delight for the details of the everyday as for the unexpected.
The project officers work occassionally from Leysdown Village Hall. You can contact them via email: louisefrancis@swale.gov.uk or Tel: 07956 437242.
Leysdown Regeneration Plan
This document was prepared by Groundwork Medway Swale for Swale Forward, Swale Borough Council, Leysdown Traders Association and the residents of Leysdown Parish. It was commissioned in 2002 and consultations took place in 2003 with Kent County Council, Kent Police, Leysdown Traders, Leysdown Parish Council, Medway Swale Estuary Partnership, Swale Borough Council, Swale Forward, residents of Leysdown-on-Sea and the RSPB.
The document was updated in 2006.