Sometimes, improving the town centre experience is about slowly and surely getting the details right. It has been great working with economic development and parking managers to help in linking parking and place in Sleaford over the last 18 months. Engaging stakeholders in improving travel to town As ever, it has been vital to bring…
Amongst the many performance measures to be expected in the ‘post-programme findings of the High Streets Task Force’, I was most interested to read and understand the final section titled ‘legacy’. This concluding section of the report published recently by the Institute of Place Management (IPM), presents suggestions for long-term learning and impact by presenting…
All in the same boat and rowing in the same direction; pick your nautical metaphors for creating a place partnership behind a plan. Our prognosis, backed by experience and evidence, is that the towns and cities that progress beyond expectations over the next decade, will be those with an action-oriented partnership behind an evidence-based plan.…
What are the opportunities for promoting pride in place through progress shown in re-shaping our town and city centres? Here I share my findings from taking a detailed look at the role of place branding in shaping and sharing placemaking and urban development, to help engage stakeholders and create a greater sense of local belief. …
What should we read into signs of the government’s place-based approach increasingly focusing policy on neighbourhood renewal? This March saw the publication of two key pointers to such a government focus on addressing decline at the ‘neighbourhood’ level. The rebranding of the Long Term Plan for Towns to the Plan for Neighbourhoods, was accompanied by…
It was a great opportunity for me to be asked the address the role of parking in welcoming places by the organisers of the North East Parking Show. From many of years of encouraging greater collaboration between parking and place managers, I still perceive a gap in the understanding between these two sectors, despite their…
This Best Practice Guide to Community Consultation and Engagement comprehensively defines the necessary standards and processes that as part of designing and delivering active travel schemes. It is probably more pitched at improving the techniques of transport planners than refining the approaches of experienced community engagement professionals. Stakeholder groups The guide defines stakeholder groups who…
Faced with frequent calls from businesses and customers for free parking in towns centres, I often liken it to expecting a free coffee in a town centre cafe. Yes, that might be welcomed though what would the coffee be like and would the cafe stay open for long? Here I look a little more in…
This Best Practice Guide to Place Visioning was written for by Katie Norman of the Design Council for the High Streets Task Force and published in 2024. Introduction to place visioning The guide describes a place vision as a galvanising resource that describes the future aspirations for a specific location. It sets-out how it captures the…
‘Putting partnerships in place’ seems such an obvious prerequisite to revitalising town and city centres, that sometimes it seems surprising to see it promoted as part of good practice. It was great though recently, to be reminded of our work in Lincoln when reading the latest Institute of Place Management (IPM) case study on the…