Background and context
Liss Parish Council wants to see our village centre become a place that residents and visitors want to visit more often and where they choose to spend more time. We hope to build on current and past initiatives to further the vision set out in the Liss Village Neighbourhood Plan 2011-2028 to sustainably develop Liss village into “an attractive place to live, by improving the built environment….. managing the impact of traffic and improving walking and cycling”, which Liss residents voted overwhelmingly in favour of (87%) in a referendum held in 2017. The Liss Village Centre Project has been a key project in our annual Action Plan since 2022/23.
Liss Neighbourhood Plan states that “Much of the centre is within a conservation area. It is an area well used by the local community. However, some of the more recent development within the centre is unattractive and not in keeping with the character of the village. Some of the area of Station Road is cut off by the level crossing from the main part of the centre and is rundown and in need of sympathetic redevelopment. The street scene is poor, with a clutter of posts and signs, some poor pavements and a lack of green planting. Parking for the centre is increasingly difficult with car parks close to capacity. Not all of these problems can be tackled through the development process. The Parish Council is committed to working with the community to enhance the vitality and viability of the centre”.
At Full Council in February 2021 we approved Liss Village Centre Project Consultants Brief. In addition we have adopted these principles for this project:
Deliverable: what is designed must be deliverable – while proposals can be ambitious – LPC must be confident that relevant authorities (ie Network Rail, Highways England, Hampshire County Council as Highways Authority) will agree to the schemes.
Ambitious: nothing is off the table. Partners should be ambitious for Liss, seeking to deliver the ambition for a thriving village centre contained in the Neighbourhood Development Plan and design brief, not piecemeal. This isn’t a project about highway improvement – it is about the vibrancy of the village centre (including seeking to design out opportunities for anti-social behaviour)
Owned by the community: Residents and businesses are involved and feel ownership for the proposals, key partners (Network Rail, Local Enterprise Partnership, SDNP, EHDC, Police, HCC, etc) are bought in
Value for money: any delivery partner will have a track record, and can evidence how development of a master plan has leveraged in funding for delivery of infrastructure projects; Liss Parish Council will need to be assured that it is getting value for money for residents.
Update January 2025
The first phase of work to enhance Liss village
centre has been completed.
Liss Parish Council and Hampshire County Council have been working with residents and partners (South Western Railway, East Hampshire District Council and the South Downs National Park) to develop ambitious, costed and deliverable proposals to improve the public realm to make it more walking and cycling-friendly, aligning with the vision of the local Neighbourhood Plan.
In September 2021, Liss Parish Council commissioned Hampshire County Council to conduct a pre-feasibility study to transform the village centre into a more attractive, accessible and vibrant community space.
The study employed a ‘Healthy Streets’ approach, by measuring and improving outcomes against ten indicators such as clean air, ease of crossing and places to stop and rest. Initial engagement activities to gather local views included stakeholder site walks, online surveys, business surveys and a pop-up event in the village centre. Follow up public engagement was also completed to obtain feedback from the initial concept designs.
As part of the study, concept designs were produced for four locations within a defined ‘masterplan area’ – Liss Central Plaza (the public highways and land outside Tesco’s), Memorial Gardens, Station Forecourt and Andler’s Ash Road/Hill Brow Road junction, all covered by a proposed new 20mph zone. In the spring of 2024 residents were consulted on the concept designs, including at a well-attended workshop in the Village Hall,
In December 2024, Liss Parish Council agreed to adopt the proposals a continue to work with Hampshire County Council to carry out the next phase of the village centre master plan development work. This involves a feasibility study and preliminary design, incorporating community feedback and further technical analysis and updating the local community on progress. Upon successful completion of this phase, detailed design and procurement will need completing, as will sourcing of funding, before construction work can begin.
