42 C O N T E X T 1 2 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 3 Grants and public realm improvements created confidence and positive outcomes. Private investment began to be made; vacancy rates fell; buildings were refurbished; new or improved floor space and new dwellings were created; and new businesses were started. The Open golf championship is coming. A further £1 million has been spent on the public realm.This regeneration has shown that success relies on perseverance, community support, grants, utilising all available planning tools and building confidence. Landscape Architect Pete Swift of PLANIT explained how the public realm could support heritage to help give town centres new purpose. In St John’s town centre, Blackpool, cars came first, pedestrians second and St John’s third.The junction was remodelled using shared space principles and St John’s was re-purposed.There was a 25 per cent occupancy uplift; street cafés were established; and the church saw improvement and conservation works, and flood-lighting was introduced. Poynton in Cheshire East was now a shared-space village. External traffic engineers had been brought in to persuade the local engineers, and shopkeepers and homeowners all loved the outcome. Altrincham had experienced decline due to a range of causes. A vision was conceived, based on success elsewhere. Social media questionnaires were used as the basis for SWOT analyses. Action plans were developed for key streets and spaces, with the overall aim of creating a new badge for Altrincham town centre as ‘a modern market town’. The chair summarised the morning’s key points, including Portas having made no reference to heritage; retailers (by contrast) appreciating listed buildings; and public money running out.The question was how to create a climate of confidence. Delegates suggested that local policy was only the stick, whereas the carrot was also important: funding was needed but retailers acted commercially, so they would only be persuaded by ideas that worked and were not expensive. After lunch there were walking tours on the theme of high streets in action: Liverpool One; Bold Street (niche retail); and Renshaw Street/Lime Street (on the periphery of the retail centre). The IHBC NW Conservation 2012 Award was presented to the Florence Institute. Liverpool’s ‘Florrie’ a former boys’ club, had been derelict and had suffered a fire. Restored, it was now a community hub. The final session considered practicalities. Ged Gilbert of Liverpool Central Business Improvement District explained that heritage was integral to Liverpool’s brand, with two Premier league football clubs and the Beatles taking centre stage.The city’s many important landmarks included the two cathedrals, the Chinese Arch, and St George’s Hall and plateau.The 2008 European Capital of Culture was launched on St George’s plateau and later that year a 50-foot spider called la Princess, designed by la Machine, appeared outside Lime Street Station and promenaded through the city. Liverpool One was a £1 billion private-sector, mixed-use development incorporating retail space, leisure space, 465 residential units and a new bus station. It had created 5,000 new jobs. Liverpool was now fifth in the retail league tables, with Liverpool One complementing the pre-existing retail core. The Arena Convention Centre had given Liverpool a much-needed music venue and conference centre. The city hosted the annual Matthew Street Festival. Liverpool had a vibrant cultural and visitor economy, which ranked third in the country – behind London and Edinburgh. Liverpool’s night time economy was important economically.The city had been awarded a purple flag and had been dubbed Britain’s best nightlife destination by Trip Advisor. Liverpool was now a major destination for retail, cultural and visitor attractions too, so City Central was branded ‘the heart beat of Liverpool’. Improving the environment, and keeping it safe and clean, were key objectives. Kelvin Reynolds of the British Parking Association spoke about people, places and parking. He quoted Portas: ‘Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table’.There was no such thing as a free parking space, so who would really be paying for them: council taxpayers, business ratepayers or landowners? To have free parking, we would need to decide: should it be free for everyone and everywhere? Should it only be free for disabled drivers, motor cycles, and/ or green vehicles? Parking was for people: it worked only if it was designed with people in mind. People drove cars and every journey was different. Just like people, parking was unique. Parking league tables had been mooted.What would they achieve?What would they measure?Would people drive to a town where parking was cheaper? Would they tell us how good or how safe a car park was? Reynolds explained the parking paradox: since everyone hated congestion and delays to their journeys, why did people hate parking control? Regulating parking was about making the best use of available space and avoiding congestion. Two scenarios showed why managing parking was so important.When parking was made free at Scottish hospitals, the car parks had become full of health-workers’ cars. Free parking near shops meant car parks became full of shopworkers’ cars. Managing parking was about safety too, but currently only 5,000 car parks in the UK had safe-parking awards. The chair summarised the day, saying that heritage mattered to the future of the high street, but it was not being fully realised. Big public funding packages had gone; eventually that would change, but until then we faced difficult times. Difficult times could sometimes lead to new ways of thinking.The day ended with a quote from the physicist Ernest Rutherford: ‘We have run out of money. It’s time to start thinking.’ A report of the conference can be found on the IHBC website, www.ihbc. org.uk, NW branch pages. Keith Parsons, University of Central Lancashire
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