A new project established by Wealden Council has been offered praise by local commentators for its ‘willingness to engage with local communities’
‘Streets Ahead—Ideas for Change’ was made available through a media release on 11 October 2013 by Wealden Council.
It outlines the ways in which Britain’s high streets are ‘going through a radical period of change, driven largely by the impact of a combination of the internet, mobile, edge of town, out of town and supermarket shopping’.
The report describes how ‘many of our own towns and villages will need all the support they can get in tackling the challenge of ensuring that their high streets can successfully evolve, thrive and continue in the future to be valued as centres of the community’.
The report which has taken ten months to complete concludes ‘Wealden District Council could and should be engaging with this issue – with the aim of providing better support and encouragement for the efforts of those involved locally in high street regeneration’.
The acknowledgement that this should involve partnerships with local communities is useful; ‘We also recognise, from talking to people in local, teams across the district, that there would be value in creating a partnership approach that would enable issues to be identified, ideas to be generated and solutions to be shared for the advantage of everyone’.
Whilst shopkeepers in Pevensey Bay seem unaware of any concerted effort by Wealden Council over the last ten months to discuss the issues described, nonetheless, the report will still be perceived as being of value.
One of the key conclusions in the report that there are ‘alternative ways of viewing High Street activity’ is interesting and demonstrates an ability by the Council to embrace some of the changes taking place.
“Looking further ahead, there are a number of new alternative shopping formats to explore. Emerging trends include those that combine a workshop or online business with the direct customer contact, and the creation of a specific retail identity in particular in a town such as antiques or food.”
An element in the report that could be questioned is the idea that ‘sentiment’ can guide future action. The report states;
‘From an immediate perspective, there is much that can be done to create a positive sentiment about our high streets’
It is true, certainly that by caring about local environments, people can contribute to the emotional well-being and social infrastructure of the communities in which they live, but without resources of course, what can be done is limited.
Having said that the news that Hailsham has introduced a new street market and is working on an online town and shopping guide is most certainly of interest.
The report outlines the ‘popularity’ of the Crowborough loyalty card scheme and the fact that the Heathfield ‘Le Marche French market’ is a success and has ‘done a lot of work to improve the attractiveness of its high street’.
All of these pointers are useful.
Where the report could have been strengthened is through some contact with good practice and community innovation online elsewhere with towns and villages, that in their mix, bear comparison with the Wealden area.
The report describes ‘introductions style websites’ to local communities. This view is somewhat parochial and out of date.
The report states;
“The Streets Ahead group proposed an ‘introductions’ website as an example of the way that the Council could become more actively involved and engaged”.
“The introductions idea was born out of the observation that the web pages currently existing for towns and villages currently offer an array of different types of local information”.
The High Street is already both online and offline.
‘The local web’ is now a commercial entity in itself. It is inevitable that it will reflect the values and aspirations of the area that it serves, in much the same way that a local High Street reflects those values.
It is also inevitable that there will be different sources of information and services online in each locality.
Local businesses now promote themselves (some exclusively through social media points of reference to their customer base) in new ways.
The notion that villages could be supported with the kinds of static website that the Council envisages was an idea that began to die a death in 2005.
It was before the advent of what is called ‘the open source web’, which, broadly speaking, is now channelling and guiding both the direction of the web bringing with it new ways of communicating and doing businesses.
People now have their own sources of local information and they are busy developing these channels themselves. It’s called Facebook.
The local news and headlines come every five minutes, again with people ‘channelling’ the information and creating their own feeds. It’s called Twitter.
The absence of an understanding in the report about these developments and the ways in which these tools are enabling people to shape new ways of communicating within their own local networks, does marginalise the findings a little.
Something like a reference (for example) to the ‘Smart Town Tenby project’ might have thrown some light on what is trending with developments in other local communities.
Closer to home, the ‘North Laines model’ in Brighton, supporting a services and shops based ‘neighbourhood community’, is a best practice approach that has been studied by organisations across Sussex.
These kinds of project are now popping up all over the country. Some are already delivering a modicum of success to the local communities that they serve.
Nonetheless, the report should be welcomed for the contribution that it is making to the debate about the future of High Streets within the locality.
What is clear is that Wealden Council is prepared to engage with local communities on these key issues.
In that regard the approach of the ‘Streets Ahead Report’ is pioneering.
Simon Montgomery
editor, Bay Life
Winner, Civic Voice ‘UK Developer of the Year, 2010′ (community association sites)
