Cultural & Creative Opportunites: ‘A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres’.
On 3 February 2021, the Town Centre Action Plan Expert Review Group published its report: ‘A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres’.
The review urges the Scottish Government to take further steps to support greener, healthier, fairer communities. The report states; "Town centres can be places we can be proud of and which provide social, economic, cultural, creative, environmental, entrepreneurial and local opportunities for all citizens."
Scotland's Towns Partnership is hosting a short webinar to present the report on Friday 18 February 2021. Register here.
Context
In 2013 the National Review of Town Centres was published. The Scottish Government responded with its Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP).
The policy framework for Scotland's towns developed further with the National Performance Framework’s statutory ‘National Outcomes’, and their linkage to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
While progress is made in numerous local towns, more can be done in town centres given their potential to meet our societal objectives. See Culture Counts' evidence to the Review Group for further information.
In July 2020, the Review Group was commissioned by Scotland's Communities Secretary, Aileen Campbell MSP.
The group was commissioned to review the 2013 Town Centre Action Plan. Covid-19 brought new and serious challenges which have required the Government to look again at support for towns. The Group was also asked to look at the emerging concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods.
Over 6 months the Review Group issued a call for evidence from all bodies and institutions with an interest in town centre policy, considered results from a public survey and previous research.
The resulting report issues three recommendations (details below).
Marginalised
This paragraph taken from the report may be of interest to Culture Counts members:
"A lack of local ownership and limited sense of local community and economy can impact the sense of place and reduce its interdependence and resilience, adversely affecting general social and economic wellbeing.
Flows (wealth, profit, decisionmaking) out of the local town and town centre add to the sense of waste and distance. There is often only a limited locally focused circular economy, again increasing unsustainable activities, and reducing local resilience to external shocks such as Brexit and COVID-19. Cultural and creative activities are often marginalised as not being commercial enough. All this adds further to the sense of “distance” or disinterest people can feel from the town centre. It also reduces attractiveness to visitors."
Recommendations
The group made three key recommendations, each supported by a series of suggestions for actions.
A set of proposals about strengthening the role of town centres in planning and the role of communities in shaping their town and town centre.
They seek to tackle what is an unfair playing field, stacked against town centres. They suggest rebalancing taxation to better encompass online activities.
To build on the strong basis of the original Town Centre Action Plan and its emphasis on Partnerships such as Paisley First are key to engaging the local community about town centre development projects and partnerships.
These recommendations link to the Place-Based Investment Programme, Community Wealth Building, 20-minute neighbourhoods and Active Travel.
Further Reading
Report website - https://www.futuretowns.scot/the-report
A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres – https://www.gov.scot/ISBN/978-1-80004-636-8
A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres: Easy Read – https://www.gov.scot/ISBN/978-1-80004-637-5
Scotland's Towns Partnership is hosting a short webinar to present the report on Friday 18 February 2021 - https://www.scotlandstowns.org/webinar_launch_a_new_future_for_scotland_s_town_centres
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