An ambitious vision for ways to improve Warwick town centre has been officially launched, along with a comprehensive action plan that aims to improve the town for generations to come.

Warwick Town Council has drawn up the vision and action plan for 2024-2030 in a bid to ensure Warwick remains a "viable and sustainable town centre" in the face of ongoing challenges for local towns and the wider economy.

The vision is the result of a series of consultations by the town council with stakeholders including local businesses and Warwick Chamber of Trade as well as residents and community groups.

Three stages of engagement revealed perceived strengths and weaknesses of Warwick as a town, as well as suggestions for how they could be addressed.

The resulting information has now been compiled and combined with wider information and research on town centres to help form the Warwick Town Vision Plan.

The plan was drawn up by Warwick Town Centre Manager Kelly Scott, who was appointed in November 2024 as part of the town council's ongoing work to coordinate the direction of Warwick and ensure it remains a great place to live, work and visit for the coming years.

Launching the Vision Plan, Kelly said: "Work on this Warwick Town Vision started before my time here, but I'm delighted to have had the privilege of bringing together extensive consultation with so many stakeholders in the town and turning it into a concrete action plan for how we can make Warwick even better than it already is.

"The action plan contains a mixture of short, medium and long term activities that address areas highlighted in the consultation and give us tangible ways to build on Warwick's strengths and address what are perceived by some stakeholders as weaknesses.

"Times are tougher than ever on the high street everywhere, but Warwick has a resilient local economy and - as this Vision shows - a passionate and committed community that is ready to work together to make our town even better.

"Some of the action points have already been started, with plenty more in the pipeline, and we look forward to delivering on what is an ambitious but eminently achievable plan for Warwick up to 2030."

The Warwick Town Vision has identified four key pillars on which to build the Warwick of the future.

They are:

• A historic and cultured town
• A connected and happy town
• A communal and youthful town
• A vibrant and safe town

The action plan then identifies a number of projects that will help to achieve those, prioritising them into short, medium and long term.

Projects to build on Warwick's reputation as a historic and cultured town include the development of art and culture initiatives and programmes, as well as effort to better link Warwick Castle to the town centre, and improvements to the public realm.

Activities to promote a connected and happy town include work around accessibility and sustainable transport, as well as improved pathfinding. There are also plans to better use empty spaces and units in the town centre, and to conduct a review of parking provision.

Creating a communal and youthful town will include increasing community and social spaces and engaging with community groups, as well as conducting regular town deep cleans and operating a regular programme of events to bring people into the town centre.

And projects to support the development of a vibrant and safe town will include support for innovation and start-up businesses, as well as encouraging investment and trialling pop-up shops.

Kelly added: "These are just some of the many ideas that make up the Warwick Town Vision and Action Plan, and I'd urge people to look through the whole document, which is the product of months of work by many different people.

"As a town council, we're fully committed to doing everything we can to make Warwick the best it can be, and we look forward to working with stakeholders and the wider community to bring this Vision to life."

A full copy of the Warwick Town Vision can be downloaded here.