This presentation introduces some of the key questions town teams, neighbourhood forums and local councils should think about when trying to revitalise their high streets.

1. the high street:
ten questions
every town team
should ask

2. Q1
just what do we mean by the
high street anyway?

4. ‘The days of a high street
populated simply by independent
butchers, bakers and candlestick
makers are, except in the most
exceptional circumstances, over.’
Mary Portas, December 2011

5. Q2
what are our high streets for?
how do they relate to the
wider area?

7. ‘No two town centres or high
streets are the same. As a result,
the way in which they are affected
by and respond to change is
diverse and varied.’
Genecon, Understanding High Street Performance,
December 2011

8. ‘As the hub of our communities,
the high street could become the
place where we begin to build a
more sustainable world.’
new economics foundation,
Re-imagining the High Street, 2010

9. Q3
what’s happening to our high
streets and why?

11. ‘There is a concern that the High
Street shopping environment to
which society has grown
accustomed... is changing and we
are not sure whether we will like
either how it will change or what it
will be changed to.’
John Dawson, 1988

12. ‘25% of high street and shopping
centre leases are due to expire by
2013 and 50% by 2015... the next
24 months are likely to see a swift
and dramatic playing out of this
polarisation.’
Jones Lang LaSalle, January 2012

13. Q4
what do people really love to
do in our high streets?

15. ‘If you asked people 20 years ago
why they came into the city, they
would have said it was to shop. But
if you ask them today, they would
say it was because they wanted to
go into town.’
Jan Gehl, Cities for People

16. ‘High streets and town centres that
are fit for the 21st century need to
be multifunctional social centres,
not simply competitors for
stretched consumers.’
The 21st Century Agora: a new and better vision for town
centres

17. Q5
whose responsibility is the
high street?

19. ‘The public sector alone cannot
create vibrant high streets,
however hard they try... together
everybody is going to have to give
a little bit to help our high streets
to be vibrant and successful.’
Mary Portas, December 2011

20. Q6
what are our responsibilities
for the high street?

22. ‘Placemaking... requires
community members to be at the
centre of planning. The outcome
has to be theirs.’
Fred Kent, Project for Public Spaces, September 2011

23. Q7
do our actions deal with
symptoms or with causes?

25. ‘This place would be a lot more
popular if it wasn’t so crowded.’
Anonymous, Durham

26. Q8
do we have the tools to help
us adapt to global change?

28. ‘We are liquidating the earth’s
natural resources to fuel our
consumption. Half of us live in
countries where water tables are
falling... soil erosion exceeds soil
formation on one third of the
world’s cropland...’
Lester Brown, World on the Edge, 2011

29. Q9
do we have the will to adapt
to global change?

31. ‘The UK is already vulnerable to
severe weather, including
flooding and heatwaves.
Continued action is needed to
manage these risks...’
Defra, UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2012

32. Q10
will we let bad things happen
because we lack the courage
to insist on good things?

34. ‘In the UK, the free-standing,
car-based, food superstore is
now the hegemonic retail
format.’
Hallsworth et al, 2010

35. four ways of thinking about
getting the town centres we
want:
1 Footfall
2 Satisfaction
3 Diversity
4 Economic activity

36. & finay
what steps will get us from
here to there... and will there
be a ‘there’ when we arrive?

37. thank you
more from me...
www.urbanpollinators.co.uk
my blog: Living with Rats
Twitter: @juliandobson