ALMOST 500 responses to a public consultation on regenerating Hexham Market Place have been turned into a series of design ideas.

Residents, traders, workers and shoppers were given the chance to have their say on how the historic heart of the town should look via a series of public events and an engagement website which ran last summer.

Now, using feedback from the first stage of the consultation process, designers at the charity Sustrans have come up with suggestions on how the area may be transformed.

“We’ve said from the outset that we want to be honest, clear and transparent throughout this process, so we’re keen to keep people involved every step of the way,” said Mayor of Hexham, Coun. Trevor Cessford.

“We hope that four options which have been suggested as a starting point can be made public in June and those designs, including pictures, can be tweaked further as necessary.

“Once we have some proposals to move forward with, there will then have to be a selection process and, we hope, a trial period to see how the selected option works.”

Coun. Cessford said he hoped phase two of the project, which includes the suggested trial period, would be well on the way to being completed by the end of the year.

Hexham Town Council and Northumberland County Council appointed Sustrans to head the project last year.

And so far the process has been jointly funded by both councils.

The website received 2,500 views throughout August and September and more than 80 people signed up to be kept informed on the project.

“We spoke to hundreds of people and have spent a lot of time collating all of the feedback and analysing it, along with some traffic data we collected, to inform a series of initial design ideas,” said senior urban designer at Sustrans, Kieran McSherry.

“But the ideas are by no means fixed and are just there to inform the next part of the engagement exercise, which will hopefully prompt further discussion and feedback.

“A series a common themes has already emerged and we have developed designs which are informed by those themes, but it’s important we continue to dialogue with local people throughout this process.”

It’s expected the designs will go on display at a venue in the town.