Top award for transformed Brighton street

Brighton has won a special award for its transformation of New Road in the city centre.

A street in Brighton has been transformed from a rigid, motor car dominated environment into one where pedestrians are actively welcomed.

Brighton & Hove City Council has received a Civic Trust special award for its New Road ‘shared surface’ scheme that puts pedestrians before cars. The award, sponsored by CABE, is for imaginatively designed streets that work for people.

Pedestrians can move freely across the whole area of New Road and the design includes attractive seating and new lighting which creates a lively atmosphere for pedestrians at night. The street now provides an appropriately inviting access to city centre shops, restaurants, businesses and homes as well as world famous tourist attractions such as the Pavilion.

The Civic Trust Awards recognise the best in the built environment and the public realm. They reward buildings and places which have made a difference to local people and their communities.

The New Road scheme was designed by Gehl Architects (where the Danish urban design expert Jan Gehl has done a great deal to improve the quality of pedestrian urban life), landscape architects Landscape Projects and engineers Martin Stockley Associates. Local people were involved in the design process through a series of workshops.