A waterfall, an open air theatre and a pond…these are just three of the ideas of ten-year-old Megan Martin, one of the pupils who took part in a consultation at Blue Bell Primary School to discuss regeneration ideas for Sneinton Market.

Megan and her friends were invited to tell consultants what they would like to see at Sneinton Market once the area has been regenerated. Some of the ideas were more down to earth – but others include a dinosaur museum and a catwalk for supermodels!

The children were encouraged to say what they felt was important for the area and their opinions for Sneinton Market both good and bad.

The children had some fairly low opinions on the area as it is at the present time, describing it as crammed, scary and with no good play areas. They were however, full of inventive ideas for the future.

The consultation was carried out by Arc4, a consultancy firm who is working together with Nottingham Regeneration Limited (NRL), and Gehl Architects to plan the regeneration of Sneinton Market.

Everyone in the community is being invited to put forward ideas on how they would like the area to look – and children and young people are especially being targeted for their ideas and getting their say.

The consultations took place with some of the children at Blue Bell Primary School and Sneinton C of E Primary School. The children were asked to come up with their own ideas of what they would like to see at Sneinton Market and they provided some inventive and valuable ideas, says Charlotte Bowen of Arc4.

She said: “The children were very enthusiastic about the future of Sneinton Market and the surrounding area and were bubbling with ideas.  

“Ideas were as modest as gardens and play areas and as flamboyant as a quad bike track, dinosaur museum and catwalk.  Both schools that were involved thought that the Sneinton Market area was an unsafe and dirty area that really needed a lot of work.”

Ten-year old Idris Nigena said: “I really liked drawing the plans and discussing the good and bad points. I thought that was a really good idea.”

Eden McKay also ten said: “I was pleased that we had been asked about our opinions. I was also quite surprised as children aren’t normally asked about their ideas.”

Ten-year old Jordan Brooks said: “There are lots of problems with the area, and I think it is a really good idea to redevelop it.”