BREWERY Square is reaching its final stages of development – but will the Square reach it's intended targets for the future?

The vibrant new heart of Dorchester is certainly beating intensively.

Diverse, popular restaurants, appealing shops and joyous fountains that presently exist have played a huge part in making Dorchester appeal to a wider demographic, achieving the primary target of attracting more tourists.

Yet there is still doubts over whether the targets expected for the square may be achieved and, ultimately, be sustainable.

The £100 million project involves the construction of 660 apartments and houses, a refurbished train station, an Odeon cinema, Zizzi Ristorante, Vivo Lounge, Cote Brasserie, Nando's, Pizza Express, Carluccios, Brewhouse Pub and Costa Coffee, 40 shops, a Premier Inn, arts centre, and an NHS Health Centre.

Yet delays due to weather, lack of funding and growing concerns about population have slowed the construction of segments of the new quarter, meaning full completion of the development will not be achieved for years to come.

For instance the Maltings Arts Theatre – which is expected to bring £5 million to the town economy per annum – has lacked sufficient funding from the Town Council, of which they pledged only £250,000 to the £13 million renovation costs, with Dorchester Arts relying on funding from elsewhere.

The market has also faced conflicts following the development and success of the Square.

Since 2012, when Phase 2 of the redevelopment plan was commissioned, the market revenue has fallen from £200,000 per annum to £130,000 and has had numerous threats of being relocated to a smaller Charles Street, due to rumours that the council may want to use Fairfield Car Park as a designated space for Brewery Square instead.

Increases in tourism is projected to have a backlash on the town though.

Concerns have been growing about how the capacity of Dorchester's car parks will be able to cope housing cars for tourists as well as for residents of the town.

There are also concerns over whether the probable numbers of tourists will not have access to all the town's resources due to potential demand exceeding supply for shops, museums and cafes.

This will result in an increase of people, meaning more traffic on the roads and more people using public services. Construction has also brought in dismay for residents living in the town centre; lorries and construction vehicles carrying material up the roads, causing congestion, freight trains consistently arriving into Dorchester South, causing sound pollution as well as sound pollution from building construction itself.

In a survey I took in the summer of 2018, I discovered that, after interviewing 20 people in the Square, 13 of them came from other areas throughout the UK, five were from the town and the other two were foreign, visiting relatives who lived in Dorchester.

In a pedestrian count I also conducted, in a ten-minute period at midday on the same day, I counted 100 people of all ages in the Square, bearing in mind that it was sunny, and I am reflecting on my results a year later so they may not present tourism in Brewery Square as of today.

So if I could apply the theory that most tourists the Square attracts are from other areas of the UK, does this make the Square successful in bringing in tourists seeing as I didn't interview more people to ask where they are from?

Primarily, will the £100 million investment be sustainable in the future if the projected large quantities of tourists are matched?

Yet when the project has finally reached its conclusion, one may say that it is definitely the modernised, joyous Dorchester as its residents know it to be like.

The former brewery, which is a Grade ll-listed building, will be converted into 29 private residential proposal apartments, adding to the 131 affordable apartments located in the Square. Being easily accessible from the town and the train station, the Square will be a fun, jubilant place for people of all ages to hang out in.

LUIS ATKINSON

Woodlands Crescent, Poundbury,

Dorchester