BASINGSTOKE residents have just three days to have their say in the latest survey on the long-term future of the town.

Wayne Hemingway, whose company has been challenged to find a vision for Basingstoke, says he hopes people will “think big” when they fill out the survey.

With over 2,700 responses so far he says he is delighted with the submissions so far, but is hoping to have in excess of 3,000 completed views by the time the digital survey closes on March 19th.

“We are coming in to work on a vision for the town centre, not something about immediate recovery, it really does look long term.”

Wayne, the man who in the 1980s launched the fashion brand Red or Dead, is the founder of Hemingway Design, who together with Allies and Morrison and JLL were appointed by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

He said they are getting some brilliant things coming back and added “The best ideas come from the people who know the town the best.”

They launched a digital survey which he says has enabled them to reach a new audience. Also, the twenty-minute questionnaire is aimed getting something that is deep and meaningful. It allows people to “empty their minds of ideas rather than it being just a tick box exercise.

“The next stage of this is we will analyse what people have said and then come up with some ideas that we will start to test with you all.”

He said they have thousands of comments that they are starting to go through but they are really urging all the town’s inhabitants to take a look at the survey before it is too late.

“Everyone is a designer remember. Not everyone can fly a plane or carry out a heart-transplant, but everyone has ideas about their town that is valid, and we just want to hear them.”

His colleague Geraint Hughes said: “This is not just about retail. This is about what other uses need to come into the town centre to make it more than shopping, given the changes that are going to come.”

He said they needed to know what employment uses could come in, what they should do with small businesses and whether education could move closer to the centre.

Wayne added: “We should all be as radical as we think we need to be. Obviously, things have to be deliverable, but we have got to think big.” To take part click here.