A competition will launch on Monday for people to design a 22 hectare part as part of a major Carlisle development.
The winning design will form the centrepiece of St Cuthbert’s Garden Village.
It has been organised by Carlisle City Council, in partnership with the Landscape Institute and the main sponsor is United Utilities.
It is open to both professionals and students across a range of disciplines.
The Greenway, Start with a Park project is identified in the Carlisle Town Deal Investment Plan, alongside six other schemes.
Carlisle submitted the plan to the Government in October 2020 and received a £19.7 million offer in March.
Councillor Paul Nedved, portfolio holder for economy, enterprise and housing said: “Start with the Park – to be based near Durdar and Blackwell – is an opportunity to create a resource that could be a visitor destination attraction in its own right and will benefit the existing and future residents of Carlisle.
“By establishing it at the outset, a greens pace will be created at the heart of the community and will be a unique selling point.
“It will also connect the proposed new communities with each other, with existing villages in the area, with the city, and with the surrounding countryside.”
The authority said the Greenway also provided an opportunity to look at new ways of delivering cycling and walking infrastructure in Carlisle to encourage recreational and active travel.
A key element of this will be ensuring that this connectivity is both within and beyond the garden village – in particular ensuring active/sustainable transport connectivity to the city centre and the transformational regeneration projects within the southern gateway area such as the railway station improvements, new university campus and business space at the Citadels and Caldew Riverside.
The professional competition will follow a two-stage process.
Each of the three entrants selected to progress to stage two of the competition will be awarded an honorarium of £5,000.
The overall winner of stage two will receive £10,000 and be invited to enter into a contract with Carlisle City Council to develop and deliver the design.
The student competition will be single stage.
The focus of the student competition will be around the question: If St Cuthbert’s is to start with the park, how would you design the park to ensure that it is the heart of the garden village?’
The student entries will be divided into:
- Students of landscape architecture at undergraduate or graduate level.
- Other undergraduate/post graduate courses.
There will be two winners selected, one from each category, who will be awarded a prize of £1,500. There will also be two runner-ups for each category selected with a prize award of £500 each.
St Cuthbert’s secured garden village status in January 2017 and is the largest of the garden villages in the north.
With funding from Homes England, the planned completion of the Carlisle Southern Link Road in 2024 will be critical to unlocking St Cuthbert’s full potential.
