{"id":640,"date":"2017-09-14T11:21:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T10:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/?p=640"},"modified":"2017-09-14T11:27:40","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T10:27:40","slug":"a-new-era-for-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/a-new-era-for-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Era for Towns?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reposted from Carnegie UK Trust<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Peter Hetherington chaired the joint Carnegie UK Trust and Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal event in North Shields on 11 July 2017, the discussions of which are summarised below. Peter is past chair of the TCPA, was a member of the government\u2019s urban sounding board and a board member of the former Academy for Sustainable Communities. He is also a former regional affairs editor of The Guardian. <\/em><\/p>\n

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I grew up, and started work, in a smallish city. It was surrounded by a clutch of even smaller towns. What\u2019s surprising is that, throughout my formative years \u2013 the 1960s into the early 70s \u2013 they were (in the case of the city) largely self-governing, a \u2018county borough\u2019 in the officialise of the time.<\/p>\n

Throughout over half of the last century, a small city was a big democratic player \u2013 for a period providing electricity, gas, water, public transport and, of course, education and social care. These institutions civilised Britain long before a national government developed any social agenda. And that went for small towns too. Just look around England, Scotland and Wales and you\u2019ll still see remnants of truly local democracy: town halls, often sadly neglected and partly abandoned, that once provided a focus of local action and service delivery. Think royal burghs (in the case of Scotland) and town councils in England (which still sometimes exist as glorified parish councils).<\/p>\n

But from the 1970s onwards, through rounds of local government \u2018reorganisation\u2019, these small councils were swallowed up by larger authorities. Local identity \u2013 that essential element of pride, belonging, a sense of place \u2013 went out of the stained glass windows which sometimes adorned these fine sandstone buildings. As countless citizens will attest \u2013 me included \u2013 bigger hasn\u2019t always been better.<\/p>\n

So what to do? If we can\u2019t turn back the clock, we can at least \u2013 as Carnegie UK Trust\u2019s \u2018Time for Towns<\/a>\u2019 project emphasises \u2013 consider how towns might have a greater say over decision making as part of a continuing policy debate surrounding community empowerment and \u2018devolution\u2019. In English terms, that latter noun briefly meant devolving some power to five \u2018city regions\u2019, such as Greater Manchester, in mayoral elections earlier this year. The initiative was meant to be rolled out elsewhere. But it\u2019s stalled. The government seems to have gone cool on the idea.<\/p>\n

In its limited form, however, this initiative did tell us something about a national policy mindset which sees big cities, and surrounding conurbations, as the drivers of a regional economy \u2013 in much the same way as London is seen as a motor of the national economy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to challenge these assumptions. As Carnegie UK Trust\u2019s recent \u2018Turnaround Towns<\/a>\u2019 report emphasises, millions of us don\u2019t live in big cities but, rather, in small and medium-sized towns \u2013 some thriving, some coasting, many struggling.<\/p>\n

I was lucky enough to chair a joint Carnegie UK Trust and Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal seminar in North Shields in July designed to address the turnaround issue, with case studies from eight places: the USA to Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Finland.<\/p>\n

North Shields? Still partly a fishing port, it\u2019s at the mouth of the River Tyne, and now \u2013 courtesy of local government reorganisation in 1973 \u2013 forms part of the North Tyneside metropolitan borough, which also embraces the neighbouring coastal towns of Tynemouth and Whitley Bay. North Tyneside, in many ways, is typical of much of Britain: poverty and plenty cheek-by-jowl. North Shields, perhaps seen as a poor economic relation, has a spectacular quayside, trendy bars, up-market flats and a poorer housing estate which has had its troubles in the past.<\/p>\n

The mayor of North Tyneside, Norma Redfern, a retired primary head teacher, who opened the event, spoke passionately about the importance of community, belonging and partnership in the quest of \u2018turning towns around\u2019. Above all, she said, councils must put residents first. This was no synthetic comment. As the only elected executive mayor in the Tyne and Wear conurbation, she heads an excellent authority which boasts high-ranking schools and considerable ambition, often directed to turning round its most challenging areas.<\/p>\n

As the past chair of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), Britain\u2019s oldest housing and planning charity, I am helping lead a project which specifically addresses those forgotten parts of England \u2013 for instance, former industrial towns and villages \u2013 which time, and government, seems to have forgotten.<\/p>\n

In England particularly, there\u2019s a policy vacuum, an asymmetric system which places, and sometimes rewards, big cities and conurbations, while forgetting outlying areas which contain the bulk of the country\u2019s population. The tide has to turn. Let\u2019s cooperate in driving forward a common agenda. A new era for towns? Why not?<\/p>\n

Peter Hetherington<\/em><\/p>\n

Reposted with kind permission from Carnegie UK Trust<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reposted from Carnegie UK Trust Peter Hetherington chaired the joint Carnegie UK Trust and Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal event in North Shields on 11 July 2017, the discussions of which are summarised below. Peter is past chair of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[306,81,307,309,160,122,6,304,305,308],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people-place-and-community","tag-carnegie","tag-community","tag-nisr","tag-north-shields","tag-place","tag-regeneration","tag-social-renewal","tag-towns","tag-turnaround-towns","tag-urban-regeneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}