Successfull cities adapt: can Newport be a successful city?

Great cities adapt. They always have. The ones that don't? They either slide slowly from relevance or find a new lower purpose, often via a series of unpleasant convulsions that can only really be observed in retrospect.

I was fortunate to have been a student of cities in Manchester at the very point in history when the Trafford Centre, an out of town palace of consumption, opened its gold leafed halls and at exactly the same time that the IRA detonated their largest ever and final bomb in an English city centre. This was a potentially catastrophic combination of events for city centre and Manchester City Council found themselves in a situation where they had to make not only repairs but undertake rapid and transformational surgery to enable the city to adapt to the new challenges that it faced.

With this in mind I turn my attention to my current hometown, Newport.

Tonight the City Council will vote on whether to make available a £90m loan to their development partner, Queensbury, to provide the funding necessary to complete the development of a new retail and leisure development.

Many local commentators are sharpening their knives for the Council, should they decide to make the finance available via a Public Works Loan. Typical negativity stems from the parochial view that Newport shouldn't have this kind of retail/leisure development because Cardiff has one and that Newport’s proximity to the Welsh capitol means that Newport must to do things differently.

If cities have an inbuilt need to adapt then Friars walk is about adapting to changed retail and leisure expectations. Shoppers and retailers both prefer large, regular shaped units that are easy to get to and easy to display goods in, but conversely, people also want real experiences that have memory, richness and meaning. The very things that one seldom extracts from a visit to an edge of centre retail park (or should I say car park!). So combining the best of both worlds has been a proven means of adaption for many British town centres.

In places like: Exeter, Bristol, Liverpool and even smaller Welsh settlements like Carmarthen and Wrexham have all integrated the expectation of retail and leisure predictability with more organic experiences with distinctly local provenance. In all of these cases, I guess that each had the right scheme at the right time. Sadly for Newport it has had an unfortunate a multi-generational track record of promoting the right scheme at the wrong time or just the wrong scheme. (Kingsway Centre - wrong scheme - right time) (Friars Walk 1 - Modus - right scheme - wrong time) 

Those that argue that Council backing of Friars Walk is just trying to make Newport into a poor version of Cardiff are out of touch with current trends in how people like to shop and how retailers like to sell. Friars Walk is a necessary adaption to the fabric and commercial offer of Newport just as the creation of Exchange Square was to the post-bomb Manchester.

I have to say that I am not a career supporter of the Council. For instance I feel that the broader economic strategy for the city lacks specialism and bravery and I also feel that the the Council have lauded Friars Walk as the end game when it is in fact only the beginning of the adaptive process. The fact that it remains so opaque as to the kind of place that the Council see Newport becoming simply sustains the argument that Friars Walk is not appropriate to Newport.

I think that local government often gets a raw deal for failing to make big and bold decisions. Tonight Newport Council will make a significant decision about whether the Newport will be enabled to adapt to changes in society or whether the City will be held in perpetual limbo because it doesn’t understand its place in the new world. 

I hope that the Council take the bold step that allows Friars Walk to begin so that we can use this as a platform for future interventions, which funnily enough, is exactly what happened to post bomb Manchester city centre.

by James Brown, Director of Powell Dobson Urbanists

A first impression of an unfamiliar city: Nottingham

I visited Nottingham today to study the design of the NET Metro public transport system and meet some of the people behind it. While I was here I thought I would have a look around.

As an urban designer I love cities. Discovering new cities, or parts of cities, is a bit of geeky hobby of mine. As a city nerd I am also quick to be critical about a city: what it does right, what it does wrong, what excites and what disappoints.  This was my fist visit to Nottingham. Here are some first impressions of the city...

My first impression was formed by the NET Metro itself. Quiet, efficient and clean. It gave me the impression of a forward thinking city. Somewhere that is investing in the future, not just clearing up the mess of the past.

I got off in the Gustavson Porter designed Old Market Square. The only reason for this impulsive departure was because it was the only thing about Nottingham that I knew about. So I thought I'd go and have a look. 

Old Market Square showed what can be achieved when the designer is brave enough to take out all of the crap and clutter. That level of emptiness can look terrifying when its on the drawing board, but alongside a building like the imposing, but unfortunately named, Council House it works beautifully. The materials were carefully contrasted with the sandstone slabs used everywhere else in the city and the details and standard of maintenance were top class. However, it was very sad to see that the innovative water feature, which was so important to the original design, was out of commission.

After Old Market Square I followed my nose and tried to spot something interesting and walk towards it. What took my eye was the cities way finding system, an effective network of signs and columns that is effectively a finger post system and a roving Rough Guide rolled into one. Taking the time to read and follow it transformed my experience of Nottingham.

Having seen part of contemporary Nottingham I was cast back in time to the Old Lace  Market. National chains gave way to smaller indie businesses in handsome red brick buildings, side streets and intimate squares. More info panels explained that whilst the city's lace production went back to Saxon times it was Thomas Adams' approach to production and employee welfare that helped put the city on the map.

Having had a glimpse of 19th century Nottingham and the hint of a more ancient past, I thought I'd try to see what the city could reveal about its medieval history. I followed the frequent info panels and found my way to Maid Marion Way, a cruel urban motorway surrounded by grey brutalist car parks, towering facades and stark structures that arrogantly divided the new city from its medieval past. Most British cities have places like this, but the experience was still a bitter disappointment. This area must be a future priority for the city council who will need to unstitch this sorry mess that segregates the city from 1000 years of history.

Once I'd reached the gates of the Castle I was disappointed to see carelessly located planters, devoid of actual pants (just mud) in front of probably one of the most important buildings in the city. It seems that the attention to detail, so evident in Old Market Square, had not managed to cross Maid Marion Way and had given up and turned back. This wasn't the only example. Other historic buildings, that would be celebrated in other cities, were left marooned in amongst disabled parking bays and double yellow lines. It seemed that the City Council, or certainly departments of it, are guilty of not being precious enough with some of their most prized possessions.

A short walk around the sandstone outcrop upon which sits the castle revealed Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, England's oldest inn, dating back to 1189 and a stopping off for medieval squaddies on route to the holy land. I expected to find some of them still there trying to master the most addictive pub game in the whole of Christendom. I was thankful that I got lucky and beat the game after twenty minutes.

In two hours, thanks to the information provided by the city council, I had a good feel for the city, it's past, present and its future. The question that i was left with was: for a city as good as this why does it have such a non-descript national persona? If half of this stuff had been in Liverpool, Manchester or Glasgow the whole world would know about it. In a competitive market place for tourism and business investment Nottingham has more than enough assets to stand out but needs to shout more confidently about what a great little city that it is. 

By James Brown

Enabling Change of Use in Town Centres: A step in the right directionbut not the solution

Recently, amongst almost daily updates in the national news on the state of our high streets, new changes to permitted development rights in England were reported.   The changes, which came into effect on 30th May, were widely reported as a boost to town centre regeneration that will make it much easier to bring new uses to empty units on the high street.  But how much impact will these changes actually make?

Summary of the changes

Changes were made that enable certain changes of use without the need to apply for planning permission.  In relation to town centres the key changes are:

• Premises in B1(a) office use will be able to change to C3 residential use.
• Buildings with A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, D1 and D2 uses will be permitted to change use for a period of up two years to A1, A2, A3 and B1 uses to help new and start-up businesses.
• Premises in B1, C1, C2, C2A, D1 and D2 use classes will be able to change use permanently to a state-funded school.

This means that the costs and delays associated with the need to apply for planning permission in these cases can be avoided.  The intention here is to speed up the process and make it easier to fill currently vacant space in town centres.  This  helps to bring planning in line with wider town centre revitalisation initiatives that are based on diversifying uses, promoting new local businesses and increasing vitality.  Allowing the change from office to residential use has the potential to increase footfall in town centres which will increase demand and it is therefore a step in the right direction.  

However, planning is only one of a number of hurdles in bringing empty spaces back into use in town centres.  Therefore the changes may not have the degree of regenerative impact that is being anticipated.    

There are a wide range of challenges that need to be overcome along side the matter of planning.  Some of the key issues include:

• Prior approval - The changes of use that no longer require planning permission will require an application for prior approval which will consider matters including highway/transport impacts, contamination risk noise and flood risk.  
• Building Regulations - Whilst planning permission will not be required, the conversion of buildings will need to meed building regulations.  Our experience indicates that this can be a significant barrier particularly in the conversion of upper storey offices to residential.  
• Demand - A relaxation in planning alone does not create demand for new uses or developers who will undertake the conversions; it is not a case of ‘permit it and they will come’! 
• Management - The residential use of a property has different management implications to commercial uses and landlords may not have the capacity or inclination to accommodate these changes.  

The changes are welcome in principle to facilitate change but it is unlikely that they will, in themselves, bring about substantial revitalisation of town centres in England.  

By Mark Farrar

Place-making and the Concrete Bollard Park

It is now commonly accepted that mainstream spending by public bodies should contribute to regeneration objectives ensuring that budgets go further and spending has a greater impact.  This is reflected in the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places Regeneration Framework (March 2013) which states that ‘mainstream budgets will be used to deliver the majority of regeneration impact across Wales’ (p36).  This principle is applicable as a guide for how money is spent on the physical regeneration of the public realm through public bodies and others responsible for managing our neighbourhoods including housing associations. 

Vibrant and Viable Places also makes a commitment to ‘place’ and I suggest that in order for any physical regeneration impact to be felt through mainstream funding, there needs to be sign up to the principles of ‘place-making’ by all of those involved in the process.  This includes those allocating budgets and implementing large-scale projects but also those implementing small-scale changes to existing residential environments and neighbourhood maintenance, which is the focus of this blog. 

I came across a case that illustrates this point well; I’ve called it the Concrete Bollard Park.  It is a relatively small space within a residential area and it is populated by concrete bollards. 

It is easy to dismiss it as insignificant but it is spaces on people’s doorsteps such as this that have a significant impact on the wellbeing of local residents and help to determine how much pride they take in their neighbourhood. 

It is important that we understand how spaces like this come about so that we identify how to manage them them.  I would suggest that nobody involved in the creation of this space could be blamed for it’s poor appearance as they probably all did their job well.  

The space is located in a residential area and marked on the OS map as a playground.  I would imagine that at one time it had play equipment in it and children from the surrounding houses would come and play here.  But at some stage the innocent pleasure of children playing must have faded; perhaps the children grew up and stopped using it, maybe it attracted anti-social behavior or the equipment got damaged, possibly a play area in this location was too noisy, or the maintenance of the play area too great a burden.  Whatever the background, at some stage it became a problem and subsequently someone’s job to fix it.  So the play equipment was removed and that person did a good job of leaving the space empty and devoid of any problems with play.  

But then that another issue arose, most likely cars being parked in the space.  To combat this problem someone then did a good job of installing some concrete bollards to ensure that cars could not access the space.    

Today a space that has no defined purpose and that nobody uses, promotes a sense of the forgotten and uncared for.  It eliminates any sense of pride for surrounding residents and stands empty and useless in an area where parking is at a premium.  But each person involved in the process did their job well. 

What was lacking was a sense of the bigger picture and a commitment to place-making.  A place-making approach requires understanding of how a space fits into the wider neighbourhood, what local needs are, the character of the area and the cumulative impact of small decisions.  It requires more consideration in the initial instance but it enables small interventions to contribute positively to an environment rather than adding to a problem that later requires a regeneration project to fix it. 

A basic understanding of urban design and place-making principles and their application to existing environments can significantly influence the quality of choices that are made in implementing improvements.  Our experience of delivering urban design training to local residents has demonstrated how this understanding can empower residents to make wise decisions about future improvements in their neighbourhoods.  If this was to be applied consistently and in a joined up way across all those involved in influencing the physical environment it has the potential to make a big difference to the quality of existing places. 

By Jen Heal

The future of cities

A thought for a Friday... these two images speak volumes about the future of cities. Copied from A Manifesto for Sustainable Cities: Think Local, Act Global (Gaines, J & Jager, S) 2009

(Largest cities and urban areas in 2020 (in millions) 

(Largest cities in the world today ranked by area - km2)

The future of the High Street: a tale of two record shops

The demise of HMV last week was a stark reminder of how much has changed on the British High Street in such a small period of time.  How we purchase music is a useful lens through which we can understand what is happening to our town centres and potentially what the solutions might be.

Previously, before the days when we could buy music online, we feared for the survival of independent record shops who were being squeezed out of existence by the corporate behemoths of HMV, Virgin Megastore and Borders. Now, however, there is no longer a recognisable High Street multiple shop that specialises in music, and this says an awful lot about how we have transferred our music consumption and indeed our broader shopping habits from the High Street to the internet.

HMV represented the last major chain High Street music shop

The threat faced by small record shops in the early noughties was highlighted by the then-seminal Clone Town Britain report, published by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in 2004 and updated in 2010. These publications lamented the loss of identity and the destruction of local distinctiveness by the gradual take-over of town centres by national chains. These concerns seem strangely anachronistic from the far more perilous situation that High Streets face in 2013. Many people in the UK would just be happy with a full town centre in 2013, never mind worrying about whether the shops were local or not.

The retreat of retail from High Streets is alarming when when one considers the recent figures from the Centre for Retail Research. Since 2007:

•   231 retailers have ceased to trade

•   23,284 stores have closed

•   209,127 jobs have been lost

These figures include well known names such as: Comet, JJB Sports, Game, Borders, Barratts, T J Hughes, Jane Norman, Habitat, Focus DIY, Floors-2-Go, the Officers Club, Oddbins, Ethel Austin, Faith Shoes, Jessops, Adams Childrenswear, Principles, Sofa Workshop, Allied Carpets, Viyella, Dewhursts, Woolworths, MFI, and Zavvi/Virgin Megastore, Peacocks and now HMV.

One of the many reasons for these casualties is that the business model for retail has been transformed by the maturity of internet shopping. After many years of trying, retailers have  finally learned how to sell things to people online just at the same time that the world seemed to switch from ugly beige desktop computers tucked away in spare bedrooms to laptops and then to smartphones and tablets which could be used from the comfort of the sofa. Clearly, this shift to web based purchasing (as well as theft!) of music has hit the multiple record shops hard.

This has meant that we have seen a substantial erosion of the commercial base of the average High Street. The loss is staggering and the Centre for Retail Research figures do not include the downsizing of big name retailers such as Mothercare and Thorntons who seem to have drawn the Siegfried Line at the provincial cities (such as Cardiff) and out of town locations to make sure they do not become the next casualty. This additional pressure is leaving the traditional High Street in many towns with a highly questionable commercial proposition.

Rather than take over our High Streets and diminish High Street distinctiveness as NEF feared, the retreat of multiples has actually created a kind of dispiriting void which, in many towns won't be filled by retail at any time for the foreseeable future.  Record shops were probably one of the first sectors of the High Street to be affected by changing consumer trends so perhaps other small retailers, Local Authorities, regeneration practitioners and policy makers can learn from record shop owners?

What is impressive is the way that, as a sub-sector, independent record shops have banded together. Between them they have gradually nurtured within their customers an intense loyalty. This is perfectly illustrated in the growing success of the annual National Record Store Day which has grown into a celebration of these stores, the service that they offer (which can’t be matched online or in a supermarket) and a way of promoting the virtues of the immersive ‘in-store experience’.

Independent record stores are taking innovative steps to attract new business and foster a sense of loyalty

Moreover, independent record stores have focused on a niche by concentrating on selling vinyl and not singles, games or DVDs. Critically, the indie record shops have met the specific needs of their (often knowledgeable) walk-in customers, whilst supplementing this with online sales to create an offer that is gaining, rather than losing, momentum and has outlasted its corporate rivals.

Whilst most successful High Streets require a good balance of independent businesses and national chains to be successful there is much that can be achieved from small businesses when they work collectively, collaboratively and imaginatively.

What is interesting is that these traders have targeted the quality of the experience, both in bricks and mortar experience, online experience and the social media campaigns that remind people they are still there.

Perhaps this progressive approach by one group of retailers could be broadened throughout whole towns to create a culture of regeneration that depends upon on collective, collaborative and imaginative initiatives? Certainly a ‘whole town’ approach that promotes the importance of the experience at every level is going to be something that flourishing town centres will all have in common. Those that can’t grasp this, I’m afraid will go the same way as HMV.