‘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 partnership-led approach to transforming the city centre.
Achievement through partnership, vision, and action
The case study, written with Simon Kirk from City of Lincoln Council, shows how the Lincoln Town Deal has proven what can be achieved through partnership, vision, and action. It was particularly satisfying to read how the approach is evolving to enable continued revitalisation, following Chris Wade’s work to help plan for this as part of his High Streets Task Force role.
Evolving Place Board
“The Town Deal Board will become the Lincoln Place Board, continuing to oversee and steward development across the city. This collaborative structure will ensure all stakeholders, from local businesses to community groups, have a voice in shaping Lincoln’s future.”
Critical criteria for effective place leadership
Transferable learning points from People & Places’ work in Lincoln about the potential evolution of Town Boards and other partnerships elsewhere, include the following critical criteria for putting partnerships in place:
- Expanding partnership’s remit beyond a single funding source: Whilst funding can be the driver for partners coming together to impriove a place, it is important from the outset that a partnership’s focus is not limited to criteria imposed externally. A partnership should be free to explore and seek to address issues tha are a priority to stakeholders locally.
- Encompassing all existing place-based activity: It is informative to map all existing, related groups/meetings to and determine with partners which need to be formally/informally linked as part of a wider network and communications. This could be extended in time to preparing an overview log/plan of all city centre strategies/projects which will help in communicating the breadth of activity and keeping partners up-to-date.
- Incorporating a focus in animation: incorporating a focus on animating places to ensure that equal prominence is given to such aspects of city centre renewal, rather than defining this activity as separate to the ‘harder’ physical transformation.
- Widening stakeholder participation: An evolving partnership approach needs to coordinate cohesive plans and collective working across all issues/areas and organisations. New ways of working should empower community partners and stakeholder groups in a way that increases participation.
- Making full use of the breadth of partners’ skills: The breadth of interests shown by individual board members and the organisations they represent, needs to be understood and used to contribute to wide-ranging development of policy and practice.
- Understanding the needs of users: A coordinated place partnership can develop a sophisticated understanding of different town or city centre users’ needs in a way that reaches out beyond individual partners’ perspectives.
- Driving success through coordination and communication: Partnership development should include channels/core group covering monitoring, communications, coordination. This needs to distinguish between internal, partnership-wide communications and external place promotion.
- Combining formal and informal working: A structured, strategic and joined-up partnership will enable issues to be considered on a city centre-wide basis. Such a structured, strategic role should be combined with informal activities that are more engaging for wider stakeholders and be supported by effective two-way communication
- Recognising benefits to partners: It is important to design new place partnership/leadership arrangements with a focus on providing benefits sought by partners. Examples of benefits sought from partner participation include improving coordination/collaboration; driving joint progress; contributing knowledge/expertise; achieving an understanding of bigger picture; influencing decision-making; driving progress important to participating organisations; accessing funding; and helping fulfil organisational objectives.
Ongoing focus on place partnerships
It’s great to hear that the IPM will be showcasing effective place partnerships through their events programme in 2025, alongside highlighting the importance to government. Putting partnerships in place and assisting their development has long been a key focus of our work as the People & Places Partnership, and so it is great to help Town Board in Lincoln to evolve in these ways.
Further reading
This work in Causeway Coast and Glens draws-on the approach for creating community-led action plans developed by People & Places for the Local Government Association’s revitalising town centres toolkit.
“It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it!” Our recent blog on how to turn-around town centres focuses on the importance of supporting collaborative placemaking. It is based on People & Places’ work to help Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council review how it supports communities in revitalising six town centres.
The High Streets Task Force’s Best Practice Guide to Partnership Formation and Development provides helpful tips about who to include in a place partnership and how to go about setting one up.
