Shaping much-loved places in Weston-super-Mare

29 May 2024

As part of North Somerset Council’s £20 million Levelling Up Fund programme, we’re collaborating with Super Culture to help shape ‘much-loved’ places in Weston. We’re leading key projects at Grove Park, Marine Lake and wayfinding to encourage people to move around the town centre and seafront.

Our first event, 'Grove Park Gathering', is a free, family-friendly event which is part of a wider programme of public engagement events for the project. Join us on Saturday 1st June from noon to 4pm to find out more about the Levelling Up Fund programme plans and share experiences of Grove Park, Marine Lake and various memories of Weston-super-Mare.

Programming for the day includes inclusive creative activities such as drop-in workshops for kids, a spoken word performance by local artist Sophie Shepherd and an engaging conversation ‘Colours of Weston’, facilitated by Ronnie Houselander. Sprout Café will serve up delicious Middle Eastern food with Global Kitchen, provided thanks to funding from Refugees Welcome North Somerset and Loves Café. Live music will be performed on the bandstand during the event.

“We’re thrilled to be supporting North Somerset Council and the communities of Weston-super-Mare to deliver meaningful improvements to some of their favourite places, including Grove Park and Marine Lake. Building on past engagement events, our ‘Grove Park Gathering’ will be a great chance to embed local creative ideas into the proposals.”

Holly Lewis, Co founding Partner, We Made That

The event is at Grove Park (78 Upper Church Rd, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 2AE). It is open and free to all, wheelchair accessible and there will be an accessible toilet available on site. For any access requirements, please email accessibility@superculture.org.uk and the Super Culture team will do their best to accommodate your request.

About the project

In January 2023, it was announced that Weston-super-Mare is set to benefit from a £20 million investment from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund following a successful bid by North Somerset Council as part of the authority’s ambitious placemaking vision for the town.

The investment will be used to focus on several high-profile sites across Weston’s town centre and seafront, transforming the culture, leisure and retail experience for residents, business, and visitors. This will help reinvent iconic heritage buildings, support local businesses, create new jobs, and deliver a year-round experience-led economy for the future.

Several opportunities have been identified to help shape the ‘much-loved places’ in Weston-super-Mare:

Marine Lake: Re-invigorating an existing asset to benefit the town’s appeal as a year-round destination; public realm interventions to create an accessible and sociable Marine Lake promenade; refurbishment of disused spaces in RNLI building to introduce public toilets and boat hire facilities.
Grove Park: Conserving green spaces and reintroduction of accessible toilet facilities.
Wayfinding across the town centre and more: Introducing public art, building directional signage and signposting and creating new ‘peculiar’ routes to heritage sites.

“We’re often asked about these much-loved places, and it’s fantastic to have this opportunity to transform the culture, leisure and retail experience for residents, business, and visitors. I’m excited to see impactful designs, and ultimately positive change, emerging from this programme of engagement.”

Councillor Mike Solomon

Our project collaborators

Our team for the Weston-super-Mare Levelling Up Fund placemaking commission combines We Made That’s experience of multi-faceted regeneration projects, with a range of local skills, including engineering from Fenton Holloway, soft landscape from Robert Bray Associates and cultural placemaking and engagement from Super Culture. The full team will be supported in optimising the projects’ environmental impact by XCO2.