Like many local authorities across the country, one of the challenges facing Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council as part of its COVID-19 recovery planning, was adapting and advancing its existing commitment to place leadership and planning in Shirley and other towns.
The ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of recovery & revitalisation
The solution for place leadership and planning Solihull’s towns has been to create the Borough’s own version of the IPM’s national recovery framework covering the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of town centre revitalisation. Place leadership and planning in Shirley town centre, for example, involved working with a newly formed marketing group to promote its safe and welcoming reopening. In parallel the Council continued engaging businesses and other stakeholders in revising the town’s long-term economic growth plan.
Part of wider LEP towns framework
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, place leadership and planning in Shirley was developing a new economic growth plan for the town centre. This place leadership and planning in Shirley was being undertaken with matched funding secured from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) as part of its regional towns and local centres (TLC) framework.
Twin-track approach post-lockdown
During and following lockdown, place leadership and planning in Shirley took a twin-track of addressing short-term recovery and engaging stakeholders in evolving the long-term strategy. The engagement work with local businesses through the response to COVID 19 and the development of the refreshed Shirley economic plan. This has led to a strong foundation for taking identified actions forward. Progress made includes identifying local business ‘champions’ for supporting place making activities that aid recovery and contribute to the development of the long-term economic plan.
Strengthened engagement and objectives
The increased stakeholder engagement and monitoring of the changing retail economy post-lockdown, has translated into a strengthening across Shirley’s town centre economic plan objectives, including:
- supporting a buoyant, mixed day and night time, cultural and leisure economy;
- maximising the town’s strong ‘civic pride’ in ways that makes it distinctive
- considering the future use of public realm, increasing attractiveness of the area, accessibility and maximising opportunities such as events space;
- working with businesses and community organisations to deliver a unified plan for place marketing and promotional activities;
- exploring the use of digital technologies to increase footfall
Additional survey work conducted post-lockdown, has identified that Shirley has many assets and a strong economic position to build upon. Through greater collaboration between businesses and community stakeholders, Shirley can better maximise opportunities for growth.
More information and updates
The full case study on Solihull’s place leadership in a global crisis is available on the LGA’s web site.
Guidance on placemaking and planning for council leaders is available as part of LGA’s revised revitalising town centres toolkit edited by the People & Places Partnership.
Updates on the publication of the new Shirley economic growth plan,due late September, 2020, will follow with a link to the published document.
