Detailed plans for Luton Town’s Power Court stadium are due to be revealed in the summer with a rotated football arena as one option, while other changes to the scheme have been partly influenced by Generation Z.
Last night, the Hatters and their property arm, 2020 Developments’, laid out timelines for work to begin on their Power Court and Newlands Park regeneration schemes, while new plans for the east and west of the Power Court site, excluding the central stadium area, have already been submitted to Luton Council.
Revised applications for both schemes expected to be determined in April/May this year and they confirmed that they are still targeting a first match in their new home in 2024.
To create what the club say, ‘will be a hive of activity on non-match days’, which will be ‘critical to making Power Court a genuinely thriving new quarter for the town centre,’ the forthcoming new detailed stadium application is expected to also include food and drink outlets, retail, business and a music venue.
Within this is the potential for the initially 17,500-seater stadium to be rotated in a different orientation to the original plans granted consent in 2019, but both options are still on the table.
A design and access statement, prepared by Leslie Jones Architecture, as part of the application for the east and west parcels of land at Power Court, outlines the opportunity for stadium designers AND Architects’ concept to be adapted. A rotation would better allocate public realm space and reduce wasted space at the rear of the site and allow for two extra buildings in the west end of the site, which could be for homes, workplaces or hotel uses.
Should the new plans for the east and west of the Power Court site be approved, the statement says: ‘Along with the potential improvements to viability, townscape and reduced St Mary’s Church impact, the rotated stadium could allow the design to re-introduce the elevated podium approach for the stadium which will create the “grand entry” sequence at the end of the plaza.’
This is despite the original vision of steps up to a podium being dropped as part of the new plans unveiled this week for the remaining east and west parts of the Power Court site.
These have seen a reduction in almost half the amount of retail space originally given planning permission for. And while this has been partly influenced by changes to UK consumer behaviour since the plans were conceived in 2015/16, and accelerated by effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the statement also indicates another driver behind the changes – Generation Z.
These are people born between 1995 and 2010, which Leslie Jones Architecture writes, are currently under-served by Luton Town centre. They state that in the next decade, as Power Court emerges, those Lutonians aged 10-25 today will, ‘be key to ensuring prosperity and vibrancy in the town centre’.
The statement adds: ‘It is important to understand the cultural, social and economic demands of this generation – our understanding of this group has changed in the 4-5 years since the original application. This demographic will be more transient, technologically capable and will live and work to an entirely different model to the current inhabitants of Luton.
‘It is likely that they will be more environmentally aware, less dependent on car transport and more comfortable with a lifestyle based upon rental models as opposed to ownership.
‘Our new aspirations for the Power Court Masterplan are therefore to provide for both the current community as well as to create a new urban district that accommodates and engages the future generations of Luton’s population.’
Like at Power Court, a reduction in retail is also planned for Newlands Park, the club’s other regeneration scheme by junction 10 of the M1, which is crucial to help fund Power Court.
The club has confirmed in a statement that this will no longer be a retail and leisure-led scheme, though some retail is still planned, along the aspirational intentions originally planned in 2015/16.
It was these plans that drew so much opposition from Capital & Regional, the owners of The Mall shopping Centre, leading to a protracted battle that was eventually thrown out by the High Court.
Now the club have said, ‘At a time of wider economic uncertainty, we are seeking to deliver they type of flexible commercial space that successful companies are demanding but without compromise on environmental standards.’
So, in its place will be a scheme with ‘a broader mix of uses to include business space, research and development, distribution and office uses’ which will deliver up to 4,000 jobs and £240million each year to the local economy.
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