Tag Archives: BIDs

Moving your ‘Town Team’ up the Local Economic Growth league tables….

By , Sunday, 29 April 2012, 2 Comments

I started my first blog this year on town centres (Portas Pilots…town centres facing their own War of the Worlds) with a reference to Clacton’s 1952 amateur film production of the HG Wells classic. Applications for Portas Pilots include +/-five minute Youtube clips from candidates, as a contemporary equivalent. The Empty Shops Network has posted a stream of (11) ‘Inspirational Portas Pilot pitches’. If government was to use YouTube viewings to determine Portas Pilot designation, then Altrincham, with 4888 views (three times more than the second most popular on ESNs posting) is in with a great chance of the award.
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Government’s approach to High Streets is a victory of PR over the substance of delivering future Town Centre economic success

By , Tuesday, 24 April 2012, Be the first to comment

 

Now that the dust has settled on the Budget, NPPF and Government’s response to the Portas Town Centre review, we know two things for certain about the future of our High Streets. Firstly, Government gives the appearance of not really understanding (and possibly not really caring about) the impact of what it is doing. Therefore, and secondly, the responsibility for future town centre vitality will depend almost entirely on the vigour and rigour of local leadership teams.

Government’s response to the Portas Review is both extraordinary in its thoughtlessness, brazen in its abdication of responsibility to local teams (and local authorities in particular), and concurrently provides a ‘signature’ exemplar of how they pursue permissive ‘Localism’ (as opposed to the heavily ‘guided’ variant) in practice.

 

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Portas Pilots….town centres facing their ‘war of the worlds’

By , Thursday, 9 February 2012, 3 Comments

Horse and Cart, Clacton War of the Worlds 1952 (EAFA 1990)

When I read Grant Shapps’ announcement (4th February) of a competition to select 12 local pilots to test ‘Town Teams’ recommended by the Portas High Street Review, I googled ‘putting the cart before the horse… town centres’. I am delighted that I did.
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