How much of national policy and local practice in revitalising neighbourhoods, town and city centres comes down to achieving a simple aim of …’getting more smiling faces in places’? At the People & Places Partnership, we have adopted this simple mantra to provide a focus for our work with councils and communities and commercial interests. …
What to do if your struggling town centre has the highest business vacancy rate in England, your historic Market Hall is failing to attract new because of the perceived low quality and poor variety of the food offer, and your town has been listed as the 12th worst place to live in the U.K. by…
‘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…
What is the role of place branding in rebuilding cities and their image? The dramatic scenes in the photograph above are of the devastation caused in the centre of Ōtautahi Christchurch by its 2011 earthquake. Whilst gladly such images are rare, many towns and cities worldwide need their infrastructure, community spirit, economies or image rebuilding…
How do you address community concerns about the loss of town centre banking services, and how do you ensure that local, small businesses can still deposit cash conveniently? What might be a suitable solution for safeguarding banking services? Addressing local concerns At the People & Places Partnership, we pride ourselves on finding solutions that address…
One of the key issues emerging from the Government’s push in the Kings Speach for new homes (not just houses!), is determining who will care for the concrete cows or other community, environmental and cultural assets in proposed new settlements. Investing in community assets If the aim is to create attractive and appealing new communities…
It was great recently to be back in Ballinasloe celebrating the success of combining enterprise and community development in boosting the vitality and viability of the County Galway town. This was a visit made even more enjoyable because supporting the work of Ballinasloe Area Community Development (BACD) has been one of my favourite projects during…
Place leaders often want to know about the options for improving parking for businesses and customers, though do not know where to go for objective and affordable advice. That was part of the thinking behind the People & Places Partnership combining forces and vocabulary with Park Consult, to devise the People, Places & Parking…
It was great to see one of my favourite town centre-based community enterprises announced this week as one of 12 worthy beneficiaries of the expansion of the Architectural Heritage Fund’s Heritage Development Trusts model. Galeri Caernarfon Since it was formed in 1992, a key role of Galeri Caernarfon has been to buy old, derelict and…
Here we look at the placemaking lessons from a Tasmanian Brand Guide. Our focus is on the transferable lessons from this case study that openly demonstrate the rigours of the brand identity process, the involvement of local stakeholders and the authenticity of the resulting place branding. The case study is aimed at assisting place leaders…