A model town offered big ideas on how to make where we live safer and happier in a Stroud gallery recently.

Peter Tay, a retired architectural technician, recently exhibited a free-standing model town he spent three years designing and assembling in the Pink Cabbage Gallery from June 11 to 16.

The idea behind Peter's town was to showcase how pedestrians and traffic could co-exist peacefully.

"Although increasing numbers of electrically driven vehicles will greatly reduce the levels of pollution in towns, it is very likely that the amount of traffic using the streets and squares will go on increasing, turning what should be habitable spaces into busy roads and car parks," Peter explained.

His town is designed so that all of the cornerstones of any good town - shops, schools and so on - are within walking distance of everybody's homes.

But there is a twist: walkers and children playing in roads are kept safely away from cars by an ingenious walkway system.

"Their journey will be made both safer and more pleasant by the provision of a two level system of roads and walkways; the upper level exclusively for pedestrians while the lower will be for motor services," said Peter, who brought his ambition to life with intricate architectural drawings and mounting recycled packaging onto boards.

"I wanted to start a dialogue, to make people aware of the possibilities."

Peter took inspiration from places like Paris as well as some of the creations he has seen on Grand Designs.

Though the exhibition is now over, Peter is not done yet - he is now drawing up plans to make an even bigger model.