Coalville is the largest town centre in North West Leicestershire. The town centre is the commercial heart of the Coalville and the place most local people and visitors head to. Places are judged by the image of their town centres and Coalville’s is the shop window for Coalville and North West Leicestershire.

Increased car ownership, more customer choice of places to shop and visit, out of town facilities and changing lifestyles have resulted in increased competition for traditional town centres such as Coalville. The competition from these other locations will continue to increase and Coalville needs to keep one step ahead.

A successful town centre is vital for the businesses in Coalville and to everybody who visits the Centre to shop, work and socialise. Coalville residents need and deserve a town centre that is a special place of which they can be proud.

A wide range of organisations and groups have a role to play in making Coalville a more attractive, inviting and prosperous town. The Council will be working with a range of partners including property owners, businesses, community groups, property developers and the County Council. Work has already begun on this with the establishment of Coalville Town Centre Partnership and discussions with developers.

Getting new shopping and leisure facilities will involve working with property developers to secure private sector investment. Such discussions are complex and time consuming and it is likely to be some years before the schemes become reality.

In the meantime a range of initiatives will be introduced to attract more people to the town centre, improve their experience when they comes here and get people talking more about their town.

These initiatives will include building on the success of the Christmas Lights event, encouraging people to shop local, better promotion of the town and with more events and activities.

The best way to keep in touch is to keep coming back to this website, which will be regularly updated with the latest news and progress. You will also find links to other organisations and groups who are partners in Coalville’s Changing.

Feedback on Coalville’s Changing is welcome – visit Your Views to have your say, or upload pictures of the town centre.

The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment is an educational charity which seeks to improve the quality of people’s lives by teaching and practicing timeless and ecological ways of planning, designing and building.

The Prince’s Foundation believes there is a link between people’s wellbeing and their built environment – our homes, offices, schools, shops, roads, parks and other places we spend our lives.

We believe that successful towns – old and new – share certain design characteristics which, when deliberately applied to today’s town-making, result in enduring, thriving neighbourhoods that don’t damage the environment.

We believe that if we can understand and apply time-tested principles and therefore build in a sustainable way again, we will reap improvements in public health, in livelier and safer streets and in a more affordable lifestyle for families and individuals. We also believe that neighbourhoods which exhibit these sustainable characteristics will increase, rather than decrease, in value over time.

We believe that some of the most important factors in creating a thriving, sustainable neighbourhoods include a network of inter-connected streets that encourage people to walk; a mix of homes, shops and workplaces that allow people to source their daily needs within a short walk; a distinctiveness of character derived through the use of local craft and building traditions and a range of different house types and prices.

The process of Enquiry by Design (EbD) was established by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment in consultation with HRH The Prince of Wales. It is a way of enabling local people to shape the communities they want to live in and to help assure them that their aspirations are achievable in reality. The Foundation has successfully used the EbD process to design towns and neighbourhoods all over the UK, from village extensions to local hospitals and whole new towns. Enquiry by Design can reduce the planning process by up to 2 years.

An EbD typically takes from 2-5 days and is led by the Prince’s Foundation designers. Participants in the process range from local landowners and developers to local community groups, special interest groups and government agencies. The aim is to gather together everyone who has a ‘stake’ in the project and who can influence its design. Often The Prince’s Foundation’s team will include specialist advisors such as archaeologists, transport specialists or landscape architects to provide expert guidance.

The workshop is preceded by thorough information gathering within the community to find out people’s concerns and aspirations for the new development. This research might take the form of an exhibition, a public meeting or questionnaires.

The EbD itself starts and finishes with a public meeting. Feedback from the first meeting informs the week’s design workshops and local community representatives will be invited to be present throughout. The workshop differs from many community consultation exercises in the high level of practical design work involved. Rather than talk about ideas, participants are encouraged to draw their ideas which are then reviewed by the group as a whole. The result is that everyone can see a visual representation of the new neighbourhood. At the end of the EBD, final designs are presented at a concluding public meeting.