Your Questions Answered

The Town Centre First policy recognises that successful places:

• are characterised by an attractive public realm (streets, spaces and parks) that is designed to invite people to meet, mingle and dwell;
• Contain a variety of services/shops that provide employment opportunities, enable people to shop locally and meet the needs of the local community;
• Provide a range of cultural, recreational and community spaces (that includes scope for periodic events and festivals) that bring together community members and attract visitors/tourists;
• Contain a well maintained building stock that creates visual interest and animates streets and spaces;
• Conserve, adapt and highlight historical buildings and streetscapes that provide the town with a unique identity;
• Are attractive vibrant places for enterprises to grow and develop;
• Are well connected and accessible to sustainable modes of transport, enabling a high proportion of journeys to be made by foot and/or bicycle from the immediate hinterland (e.g. the ‘10 minute town’ concept);
• Manage traffic within central areas so that streets prioritise vulnerable users (pedestrians and cyclists), enabling them to move about safely and in comfort;
• Provide a mix of housing typologies and tenures to cater for diverse communities in terms of age, income and mobility;
• Utilise digital technology to enhance the experience of living and working in towns, enabling greater choices in terms of location and lifestyle;
• Provide opportunities for the amenity, health and well-being of residents, workers and visitors

The Town Centre First approach is designed to empower local communities and businesses, working with Local Authorities, to maximise the particular strengths and assets of their town.

 This plan led approach is centred on:

• Collaboration and communication – a collaborative process involving all relevant local stakeholders with good communication in respect of issues raised and the agreed direction;
• Understanding the place – analysis and appraisal underpinned by the Collaborative Town Centre Health Check process. This empirical baseline will help monitor and drive development of the town centre and should include; Land Use surveys to establish the overall vacancy rates in the town, Retailer surveys to establish current levels of commercial activity and outlook, Pedestrian counts to establish actual town centre visitor numbers as well as broader data collection models such as digital town blueprints that will help us to understand our places better.
• Defining the place – shaping the plan around high-level objectives that are subsequently expressed through a series of actions
• Enabling the place – identifying a clear path to delivery of the Plan, cognisant that this will require actions of varying scale to be delivered by different partners

A Town Centre First Town Team is a group of local residents, business people, community representatives and other stakeholders who come together to make their area a better place to live, work, visit and invest. They represent diverse sectors and backgrounds. They have a unique position in the community to become ‘local experts’ on their area and to take a lead on the development of interventions that can make positive long-term changes for the town.

Town Regeneration Officers (TRO) are based in each Local Authority and act as a key conduit between the Local Authority and the Town Teams. The TRO guides the Town Team in delivering the Town Centre First Policy and ultimately identifying and accessing potential sources of funding. The TRO supports the local Town Teams through capacity building and the development and delivery of the Town Centre First Plan for each town. The TRO also forms part of a national network that supports knowledge development and sharing of best practice at a national level.

A dedicated National Town Centre First Office has been established to drive the delivery of the Town Centre First policy and deal with the range of actions referenced in the policy document including:

• Supporting a collaborative National TCF network to ensure consistency and best practice in the roll-out of the TCF policy
• Developing a new national Toolkit to support the implementation of the TCF Policy by providing a range of examples of best practice and available resources to guide implementation.
• Establishing improved data sources, defined measurement requirements and research on cost benefit analysis of actions
• Producing an Annual Implementation Plan to guide delivery at a national level and monitor delivery through regular Progress Reports.

The Office is a focal point for co-ordinating engagement between stakeholders on Town Centre First and inputting into national policy development in the area of town centre regeneration.

A National Oversight and Advisory Group (NOAG) has been established to monitor and guide the delivery process and provide a shared forum for engaging across Government and national stakeholders. The Group includes Government Departments, the Local Government sector, agencies central to supporting towns, other experts, and sectoral, business and community representatives. The National Town Centre First Office provides ongoing updates to, and is guided by, the NOAG.