The group Changing Chelmsford www.changingchelmsford.org was set up in 2010 to celebrate and grow the culture, character and creativity of Chelmsford.  One of their initiatives was to intrduce the concept of the Heritage Triangle in the city; this triangle encompasses Shire Hall, the Ann Knight Quaker Meeting House and the Marconi factory in New Street.
It was this group that organised the visit to the New Street site in June 2012, as was reported on this web site on 20 June and in the Essex Chronicle on 21 June.
On 13 October they organised The Heritage Triangle debate in Shire Hall.  The debate was chaired by Professor John Worthington who was also involved in the Marconi New Street visit and the panel consisted of Simon Burns MP, Councillor Dick Madden from Essex CC and Phil Martin chief executive of the YMCA Chelmsford.  Dick Madden chairs the working party on the future of Shire Hall and Phil Martin is working with Genesis, the company currently refurbishing the Ann Knight building.  There should have been a fourth member of the panel, Robert Macdonald from Bellway Homes, the current owners of the New Street site, but instead we had a group of three people from the company Hard Hat who are currently working on the redevelopment of the Marconi site on behalf of Bellway Homes; they spoke from the floor.
The debate itself did not address very specific details of any of the buildings within the triangle but it did provide an opportunity for an update on what was being proposed, how the refurbishments were proceeding and, in particular, produced some new ideas from the public present, one of the main ones being the need to significantly improve the railway station.  The Ann Knight building is already well advanced and should be open to the public next year as a multi function building that can host a wide variety of events.  Shire Hall is rather more problematic, Essex CC have stated that the building will remain in their ownership and will be available to all the people of Essex but have not yet determined exactly how this will be achieved or what would be its exact uses given that it must be self supporting financially.  Not much could be said about the Marconi site, given that Bellway have only had ownership for about six weeks, but it was stated that there would be no high-rise buildings on the site.  The plans will follow roughly what has already been proposed by the previous owners and agreed by the City Council, namely a mixed development of residential and commercial properties but will incorporate the ideas from Changing Chelmsford to open up an attractive route between the railway station and Anglia Ruskin university.
There will be the first public consultation on the Marconi site at:
Anglia Ruskin University
Room SAW002
Ground Floor
Sawyers Building
Thursday 18 October  1600 – 2100
Friday 19 October  1600 – 2100