Scottish Government

Piecing Together the Towns Jigsaw: Developing and Implementing Whole Town Strategies

What are Learning Points?

Learning Points share what people have learned from their experience in regeneration - from people working or talking together, or from research into issues and evaluation of what is happening. Learning Points can help people and organisations to improve their practice through identifying what works and what doesn't.

What is this Learning Point about?

This Learning Point is developed from an event held in October 2009, which focused on the development and implementation of 'Whole Town Strategies'. It brought together people from the public, private and voluntary sector across Scotland to debate issues and share experiences.

The event was jointly hosted by the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network and Business Improvement Districts Scotland (BIDS).

What are the important issues?

• Why is the development of Whole Town Strategies important? How can they contribute to regeneration of small towns?
• How can Whole Town Strategies embrace more holistic approaches to regeneration?
• Are certain sizes of town more likely to benefit from a Whole Town Strategy or should all towns be developing this approach?
• What should be the spatial scale for Whole Town Strategies: the town centre, the wider settlement, the town and its hinterland?
• What should Whole Town Strategies cover and how should they fit with other local strategies?
• How can emerging strategies for towns build on the strengths and knowledge of local communities?
• How can we retain the individuality and heritage of our towns whilst undertaking regeneration?
• How can towns cooperate better at the regional level?
• Can Whole Town Strategies and cooperation between towns contribute to balanced development and 'territorial cohesion'?
• How can partnerships be supported in the development of town centre strategies?
• What are the main challenges to developing and implementing town centre strategies?
• How can we develop Whole Town Strategies in the context of existing Whole Town Plans?
• Where and how do whole town plans and approaches work?

What is known already?

• A central aim of regeneration is to create successful, economically sustainable places. This can lead to wider social and environmental benefits.
• The Scottish Government is committed to regenerating our town centres. It has supported Business Improvement Districts Scotland, the Town Centre Regeneration Fund, Urban Regeneration Companies and the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network.
• The challenges facing Scotland's towns have often been created by many years of decline. The current economic climate makes it particularly challenging to encourage investment in our town centres.
• We need to work together - across the public, private, voluntary and community sectors - to tackle disadvantage and regenerate our towns.
• Spatial definition is an issue. The definition of a 'small town' varies across the country both in terms of population size and legal status. Town centres need to be seen in the context of the whole town.
• Whole Town Strategies are already being used across Scotland. More than 80% of local authorities have strategies in place for town centres (covering 59 towns). However, there is wide variation in practice and a lack of definition of the 'whole town' approach.
• At the EU level there is a "policy gap" in relation to small towns - larger urban centres are covered, as are rural areas, but there is no specific policy to take forward small towns.
• There have been limited networks to support towns to work together or share good practice.

What have we learned?

Whole Town Strategies offer a coherent vision for towns:

• A clearly stated vision for a town gives direction to the regeneration process and is a powerful 'mandate' if supported by a wide range of local partners.
• A clear sense of what people want to achieve will help attract investment from both the public and private sectors.
• Developing a Whole Town Strategy can help establish a coherent link between the objectives of central government, local government and those of the community. An established plan for the town can encourage private investment by providing certainty about the future.
• Whether a formal Whole Town Strategy is appropriate for a town depends on the context, existing strategies in place, and the scale of the settlement.
• Whole Town Strategies are good practice but might not be required for all towns.

We need to share good practice and lessons learned on Whole Town Strategies:

• There is a growing body of experience on Whole Town Strategies in Scotland but approaches have varied considerably across the country. There is a need to collate and refine the information on successful approaches. This should be available to practitioners in a user-friendly way.
• Practitioners do not necessarily want to see formal guidance on Whole Town Strategies or prescription from the Scottish Government. Practitioners often feel that they are 'working on their own' and think that networking and informal exchanges are more valuable than formal guidance.
• Terminology and definitions are a problem. Practitioners would benefit from clearer descriptions of what Whole Town Strategies actually are and what they might include.

Partnerships need support in measuring success:

• In order to measure town centre performance and the success of a strategy there is a need for more nationally available data and the development of a consistent set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). There is scope to build on the indictors developed in Scottish Planning Policy 8 (SPP8). Good practice would also see the development of regular 'health checks' to measure success.
• Monitoring and evaluation of town centre performance shouldn't focus only on economic and physical elements but should relate to local people and consider qualitative issues.
• Whilst there is a need for support in relation to gathering evidence, data gathering approaches need to be flexible and address local needs. A balance needs to be struck between measuring core indicators in a consistent way and encouraging the use of other indicators appropriate to different local contexts.

Holistic and sustainable approaches are needed:

• Successful Whole Town Strategies identify appropriate and economically sustainable interventions. There should be a range of plans that meet the needs of local people over the long-term. This means going beyond physical regeneration of housing and promotion of retail space, to consider wider needs such as transport, education, health provision, leisure and business development.
• Decisions need to be made about what locations best suit particular projects. Partners, including the community, need to identify what projects will work where, and why.
• Strategies should encourage a mix of public and private sector investment to support sustainable regeneration. In many towns, regeneration has been able to continue through difficult economic times as a result of this mix of investment.

Visions for towns need to be consistent with wider strategies:

• Partners need to ensure that Whole Town Strategies are consistent with the objectives set out in other key strategies. Town strategies need to be aligned to Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs) and Local Development Plans (LDPs).
• A town strategy should also be consistent with the aims of the Community Plan and support the delivery of key local objectives.

Coordination between towns can be valuable:

• It is important to harness any strong interdependencies between town (particularly at the regional and sub-regional level) and avoid the negative impacts that unnecessary competition can have.
• A coordinated approach to developing complementary town strategies can encourage towns to make the most of their particular strengths and also contribute to the overall success of an area.

Identity and heritage need to be valued:

• Strategies should build on the existing strengths of the town including its identity and heritage. There may be real value to be gained from recognising, promoting and developing elements that are local and distinct.
• Community engagement is essential. Using community knowledge and memories can help focus minds on what a place might become.
• Careful consideration should be given to the wider marketing of a town centre strategy. Marketing strategies will vary depending on the type of audience being targeted.

What next?

The issues identified at this event will form part of a future programme of activity for the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network. The learning network supports organisations and individuals to improve the way that Scottish town centres and high streets are made more vital, vibrant and fit for purpose. It is led by the Scottish Centre for Regeneration (SCR). The learning network will provide support and help people to exchange information and ideas. This will include organising further events to share good practice, identifying and publishing information about case studies of good practice, and developing other opportunities for sharing experiences through study visits and Action Learning Sets.

You can join the Learning Network online at Partners in Regeneration or contact Yvonne Gavan, Learning Network Coordinator, on 0141 271 3734

Further information

• Copies of the presentations delivered at the event referred to in this learning point are available from the Scottish Centre for Regeneration website.
• A SCR Briefing Paper on Whole Town Strategies, written by Mhairi Donaghy of EKOS Economic and Social Development, and published in partnership with BIDS maps out how Local Authorities and their partners are approaching town centre regeneration and the extent to which Whole Town Strategies are part of this picture.
• The Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network website provides a range of examples of approaches to regenerating town centres.
• The Business Improvement Districts Scotland site includes lots of useful background information, including practical advice notes and guides on a range of issues.
• A 'Toolkit for Sustainable Small Town Strategy' has been developed by the Sustaining Small Expanding Towns (SusSET) project funded by the EU. The toolkit gathers together information and case studies and presents a model of how to approach the development of a small town strategy.
• In Neilston and Barrhead (both in East Renfrewshire) partners have developed town strategies in collaboration with the local community.
• Barrhead has adopted a range of different approaches to regenerating the town
• In Neilston they developed a 'Town Charter'setting out the strategy for the town
• Architecture and Design Scotland (A+DS) have produced a short briefing video on approaches in Neilston.
• The Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership developed a strategic framework for the regeneration of seven towns across the area.
• Argyll and Bute Council has developed a coordinated programme to support regeneration and economic development in five of its waterfront towns - the programme is called CHORD.
• The Scottish Renaissance Towns Initiative focuses on small town regeneration and is being developed by partnership including: The Glasgow Urban Laboratory; A+DS; The Development Trust Association (DTA) Scotland; The Lighthouse and SUST.
• You can find out more about the Planning System in Scotland, including actions that are being taken to modernise the system.
• The Department for Communities and Local Government has produced practice guidance to support town centres to reach their full potential.
• You can find out about European activity in relation to small town regeneration from the ECOVAST (European Council for the Village and Small Town) website.

Scottish Centre for Regeneration

This document is published by the Scottish Centre for Regeneration, which is part of the Scottish Government. We support our public, private and voluntary sector delivery partners to become more effective at:

• regenerating communities and tackling poverty
• developing more successful town centres and local high streets
• creating and managing mixed and sustainable communities
• making housing more energy efficient
• managing housing more efficiently and effectively

We do this through:

• coordinating learning networks which bring people together to identify the challenges they face and to support them to tackle these through events, networking and capacity building programmes
• identifying and sharing innovation and practice through publishing documents detailing examples of projects and programmes and highlighting lessons learned
• developing partnerships with key players in the housing and regeneration sector to ensure that our activities meet their needs and support their work

Scottish Centre for Regeneration
Scottish Government
Highlander House
58 Waterloo Street
Glasgow
G2 7DA
Tel: 0141 271 3736
Email: contactscr@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Website: www.partnersinregeneration.com

The views expressed in case studies are not necessarily shared by the Scottish Centre for Regeneration or the Scottish Government.

January 2010