Basingstoke’s Festival Place, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this autumn, is expanding its service offering through the launch of various community-focused initiatives.
Following the success of an NHS pop-up Health Hub, Festival Place launched a new and larger community health clinic in June. The facility occupies 6,113sq ft of space in a prime location within the centre and is the first of its kind within a top tier UK retail destination.
To improve accessibility and inclusivity, weekly quiet hours now take place between 4pm and 7pm on Wednesdays and 9:30am and 10:30am on Saturdays. As a proud supporter of the Deaf Awareness campaign, Festival Place has also provided free training for nearly 80 retailers on how to better communicate with the deaf and hard-of-hearing-communities.
To help support the most vulnerable, Festival Place has offered free space to the Community Food Link, a Basingstoke charity that collects fresh food and delivers it to those in need, to operate a new delivery Hub. Partnering with local charity All Yours, Festival Place also recently joined the ‘Package For’ initiative by making period packages available to collect for free from various location within the shopping centre.
“As a true town centre-based scheme, we are closer to our local community than many other comparable schemes. In that sense, our focus on community has been ever-present, but post-pandemic we have strengthened our connection with the town and people of Basingstoke”, said Neil Churchill, Festival Place centre director. “With the centre growing into so much more than just a retail destination, we are working hard to provide for our community and make Festival Place a place where they can access the services they need and always feel welcome”
