OUR SPECIALITIES
At People & Places, we pride ourselves on ‘bringing facts and faces to places’ through a joined-up approach. As our name suggests, we focus on the links between people and places and have long wedded our work to boosting local ‘pride in place’.
We distinguish ourselves from other consultancies in the ways this leads us to focus as much on the ‘how’ (people & partnerships) as the ‘what’ (plans & projects) of revitalisation. Our perspective on the re-imagining of neighbourhoods, towns and city centres, seeks to be as broad as the benefits that people get from places.
You can get a good sense of our joined-up approach to reimagining places provided through our ‘specialities’ by looking at the national good practice provided though the revitalising town centres toolkit, written for the Local Government Association (LGA) or the international training course on ‘boosting pride in place‘ created with Australian-based PlacemakingEducation.
Understanding town trends
Improving your neighbourhood, town or city centre without first investigating the issues is like baking a cake without knowing the ingredients.
Gathering evidence and objectives is the foundations stage in the ‘town centre checklist’ created by the People & Places Partnership as part of the revitalising town centres toolkit. This five-minute video presentation gives an overview of an evidence-led approach to town centre recovery and revitalisation using the example of our pioneering work with Selby in North Yorkshire that features as an LGA good practice case study.
Read an LGA good practice case study of how we have used this approach in developing an evidence base for the Southwold Coastal Community Team in Suffolk; or how the understanding gained underpinned ten years of town team development, action planning and asset development in Ballinasloe, County Galway.
An important part of tracking and responding to town trends, involves assessing the perspectives and priorities of ‘communities within communities’. We have recently contributed to national-level understanding of how to take a younger view on pride in place, alongside focusing on disadvantaged communities.
Part of understanding ‘town trends’, involves tracking evolving national policies and programmes. Through our place policy checklist, we help join-up the dots between all new, national policies that can impact on places at a local level.
Creating talented town teams
Creating a talented and effective town team or place partnership, is one of those things where it’s obvious when you get the mix right but it seems hard to write down the recipe beforehand.
You can read our guidance on the importance of organisational form and governance as part of the updated LGA’s online toolkit for revitalising town centres as well as an accompanying case study on creating talented town teams in Pembrokeshire. You can also learn about our approach to ‘‘creating place partnerships behind plans‘ and request a copy of our checklist of success factors in partnership development. The checklist can be used in conjunction with a mentored assessment by People & Places based on interviews with partners, or as a self-help diagnostic as part of the formation or evolution of a partnership.
We have been working closely with national partners including the Institute of Place Management to ensure that the benefits of devolution and local government reorganisation support local governance. Our research paper published in the Journal of Place Management and Development makes an authoritative case for how this can be achieved by combining options for place-based governance, including place partnerships, community anchor organisations and town or city councils.
Delivering recovery and revitalisation
Based on the solid ‘starters’ of a strong evidence base and emerging or evolving place partnership, People & Places can guide the successful development and delivery of a ‘main course’ of tailored, local action plans.
The LGA’s national revitalising town centres toolkit prepared by the People & Places Partnership, includes updated guidance & case studies about delivering immediate recovery & long-term revitalisation. Our ‘fast and free’ international training programme created with PlaceakingEducation offers inspiring and informative tips on ‘boosting pride in place‘.
The toolkit’s town centre checklist shows how charting prospects for planning, property, parking, travel & public realm enhancements are key in unlocking the long-term potential of places and boosting footfall. This complements detailed guidance that we provide on issues such as reviving historic town centres.
The checklist also highlights the role of softer skills able to help bring town centres to life by better serving customers’ needs. Business diversification, place marketing and digital development are important parts of this.
Our long-established focus on linking people & place is illustrated by our detailed guidance on ten tried-and-tested steps for boosting pride in place, that accompanies the free training course. Our guidance is understanding and application of workable techniques focused on involving people in the process of improving the places that matter to them, rather than imposing misplaced material outputs or doing it to or for them. The advice that we provide on ‘getting ready for the Right to Buy‘, shows how we link our knowledge of emerging government policy to community-led revitalisation of places.
Promoting travel to town
We increasingly realise that as part of our work to ‘bring facts and faces to places’, there is an appetite to provide and promote improved travel to town.
Ask the businesses in any town about the issues that most perturb them and probably around half will say ‘parking’. We approach this as part of a wider need to make places appealing and easy to access by different modes of transport.
Our ‘sofa to shop‘ approach to promoting travel to town looks at the whole journey rather than parking in isolation. In doing so, we seek to link the online and on-street experience to overcome perceived and physical barriers that limit potential customers’ trips to town. Take a look at our case study of reviewing access and signage in the Malverns.
We have now taken our understanding of town centres and combined with Park Consult’s experience of parking management, to offer a comprehensive and cost effective People, Places & Parking Process consultancy service for councils, business groups and parking providers. Take a look at the LGA guidance on town centre travel, parking and access; or the LGA case study of our work linking parking and place in Sleaford that uses our process.
Our work in improving parking for businesses and customers in Salisbury, included developing travel management principles for the city as part of the Witshire Local Travel Plan process. We do this alongside wider analysis of policy and practice impacting on travel town, as shown by our recent review of the Government’s new Better Connected Integrated Transport Strategy.
Over time at People & Places, we have realised that our role in ‘bringing more facts and faces to places’ includes making travel to town more appealing in ways that capture the authenticity of places. We have positioned ourselves at the forefront of international research and good practice in developing place brands and identity by involvement with the International Place Branding Association, The Place Brand Observer and City Nation Place.
As illustrated by our Lowestoft case study, our approach focuses on ‘branding that gets beneath the skin of a place‘ to create a distinctive new narrative that residents recognise and creates authentic appeal to visitors. In this way the strengthening of a town or city’s brand and identity fits with our wider ethos of ‘promoting pride in place through progress’ in revitalisation.
For more information
Read more about the People & Places’ specialities in our guide to bringing facts and faces to town centres ‘bringing facts and faces to town centres‘. If you would like to learn more about how we can help in bringing facts and faces to places that matter to you, either through revitalising town centres or our wider support for boosting local pride in place, get in touch through services@people-places.net. You can keep up-to-date with our work by following The People & Places Partnership on LinkedIn, including subscribing to our monthly ‘Talk of the Town‘ newsletter.