Role as ‘vibrant hubs’ urged for high streets hit by shop closures

Times may have changed quite dramatically, but a new report by consultancy Urban Pollinators is calling for Britain’s towns to capture the essence of the Agora and reinvent it for the 21st century.

It says the high street should not just be about shopping, but a vibrant hub for “engagement in society, in culture and the arts, in learning, in relaxation and enjoyment of green space, in sport and play, in socialising and debating futures”.

With struggling retailers closing stores and leaving gaping holes in our high streets, the report suggests that health clinics, childcare centres and even schools should fill the void – creating a new Agora. At the very least, empty units should be community meeting places or art exhibitions.

Most strikingly, it says town centres “must be reanimated” by the people who use them and rediscover whatever it is that makes them unique and celebrate it. Our towns must be “re-imagined” around an experience found nowhere else, whether it be a specialist market, local initiative or tourist landmark.

“The public should no longer be seen simply as customers but as co-creators,” the report says. In the same way that rural communities are being asked to step forward and run their local services, those living in towns should be ambassadors for where they live.

“A town centre manager or local authority may take a lead role in promoting animated experiences but there is no overriding reason why they should have to. It is important to allow those who emerge as leaders to act as leaders, whether they are residents, chambers of commerce, traders’ associations, independent artists, social entrepreneurs or festival organisers.”

But for the creativity of the “Big Society” to be harnessed, the Government must ease restrictions and allow unused shops on our high streets to be taken over, at least on a temporary basis, and converted into something with purpose and meaning.

A new Government precept for making this a reality, along the lines of those received by parish councils for improvements to small towns and villages, may prove a little optimistic in such stretched economic times, but the report insists alternatives are available.

“Local investment vehicles are already being created through, for example, public service pension funds and community share issues; community bonds and local stock exchanges have been proposed,” it says.

This report is a forerunner to next month’s findings by retail expert Mary Portas on the state of the nation’s high streets and it is hoped her conclusions will be broadly similar, encouraging the Government to draw up new legislation empowering residents.

Ms Portas visited Rotherham, one of the hardest hit town centres in the recession, as part of her research but the Urban Pollinators report features the Incredible Edible Todmorden project in West Yorkshire as a case study. It called it “an example of how a town can be transformed when the powers that be are prepared flexibly with the vision of local residents”.

Julian Dobson, the report’s author, said: “Community and civic organisations need to find out what works. We have seen this done in Todmorden and also in other places like Barnsley, where they are hoping to make the market the central attraction, and Scarborough, where they have the sea.

“There are examples of strong community organisations who are well placed to take over empty properties.”