Revitalising Leistontown centre; a forward framework

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Planning Partners

The People & Places Partnership has been commissioned by East Suffolk Council to help develop a ‘Forward Framework’ for Leiston town centre in association with Leiston Town Council, the Leiston Business Association and Leiston Together.

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hen we asked 238 customers about the positive aspects of Leiston town centre, convenience (84%), customer service (79%),

ease of walking (79%), access to services (78%), health services (77%), access to ATM (72%), safety (64%) & parking (63%) were all valued positively & compared favourably to small towns nationally.

Understanding a town centre is about people & place. About the customers & the businesses based there.

About the built fabric & sense of community created.

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Positive local perceptions

hen we surveyed every town centre business, the responses indicated that local customers (75%), appearance (67%),

café/pubs/restaurants (65%), tourist customers (65%), parking (58%), public transport (58%), affordable housing (56%) & footfall (52%) were all highly valued compared to towns nationally.

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The big pictureo get a ‘big picture’ & understand the wider context of Leiston town centre, we used a tried & tested process of bringing together existing local research,

surveying local stakeholders & collecting a suite of key performance indicators. Our approach has been adopted by the Local Government Association as national good practice for revitalising town centres. In understanding Leison, we turned first to analysing existing strategies, population data & indicative performance measures.

Proactive planning

The Leiston Neighbourhood Plan contains policies for revitalising the town centre. These include plans for the long-term creation of a new focal point for retail & leisure on land adjacent to the High Street, complemented by policies encouraging ‘quick wins’ from improvements to the streetscape environment.

Changing population

Data from the Suffolk Observatory shows that Leiston has a slightly older profile than typical for the UK with 40% over 60-years old. Nevertheless, 42% of residents are under 40 years-old and will become increasingly important in the way they use and spend in the town centre.

Understanding the evidenceIt is vital to develop a response to

revitalising Leiston town centre that

is based on an understanding of the

evidence of changing performance &

opportunity. If this is understood, the

various partners can come together to

address a common agenda & develop

coordinated solutions. By staying focused

on the evidence, the partners can monitor

progress & clearly demonstrate success.

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Enhancing streets & spaces

Targeted enhancemnets might quickly improve sentiments about the appearance & cleanliness of the town centre to increase foot-flow and dwell.

Diversifying shops & services

Digital development can respond to business & customer priorities to create new online services promoting the variety of existing & encouraging diversification.

Managing sustainable growth

The Neighbourhood Plan provides policies for growth, streetscape enhancement and mixed-use development as a basis for boosting future identity & business mix.

Strengthening town’s identity

Positive sentiments about Leiston’s services compared to its retail mix point to an opportunity to improve resident’s perceptions by strengthening its identity.

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BUSINESS PEFORMANCEA significant proportion of businesses

reported a negative performance over the last year: 27% said that profitability had decreased compared to 34% nationally.

BUSINESS CONFIDENCEA relatively high proprtion of Leiston businessses were optimimistic about

future trading, with 76% projecting the same or increasing turnover in the year

ahead compared to 81% nationally.

BUSINESS PRIORITIESWhen businesses in Leiston were asked

what two things would improve the town centre, the top priorities identified by 19%

of respondents related to parking and improving the business mix.

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A need to strengthen Leiston’s identity sked if they would recommend a visit to Leiston, a relatively low proportion (56%) said ‘yes’ compared to 67% of towns nationally and 85% across East Suffolk towns.

When asked how their experience of the town centre had changed in recent years, only 26% of on-street and 10% of online town users said it had improved compared to 26% and 44% who said it had worsened.

Leiston summed-up in a word

When asked to give a single word that summed-up Leiston town centre, the most prominent responses are a mixture of some positive words, such as friendly and potential, or a greater number of negative words such as tired, dated and empty. This paints a picture of a functional and currently uninspiring place to use and visit.

Customers’ priorities for change

Asked what two things would improve the town centre, the overwhelming response from customers related to the business mix. Traffic and transport issues, the need for another supermarket and better planning and investment were also priorities raised by town centre users.

Customers value access to local services

Leiston is one of the local towns most positively perceived for the availability of leisure cultural activities and access to local services.

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Early progess & future plans

evitalising Leiston town centre will require a combination of early progress through enhancing its existing appearance and appeal, along with pursuing

ambitious future plans to diversify its businesses and reshape its public spaces.

Quick improvements

‘Quick wins’ need to be developed and delivered that help make more of Leiston’s existing offer and create a sense of progress. This might involve modest physical enhancements to the town centre streetscape and the encouragement of cycling and walking. Community-based events and digital promotion can help attract people to the town, boost foot-flow and encourage people to linger in Leiston.

Creating lasting change

The Leiston Neighbourhood Plan includes a well-articulated vision for the town centre with a strong focus on strengthening the range of services available. There needs to be a continued focus on exploring how this can be achieved including through the potential creation a “modern town centre offer that people come to meet, shop and enjoy their leisure time in”.

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Renew civic pride

Targeted enhancements will give residents a re-newed civic pride and help them enjoy exploring their town. This will happen best through a combination of safe cycling & walking routes; enhanced public spaces and shopfronts; the online visibility of business; community-led events; welcoming hospitality; & community services.

Taking town online

New customers are attract-ed by a place & its products. Getting businesses working together to promote the town & each other online can be a first step in digital development. From the sur-veys we know that 50% of businesses & 48% of custom-ers see improved promotion through social media up-dates as an early priority.

COVID-19 recovery

The short-term im-pacts and the long-term behavioural changes caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus need to be understood & factored in to future work. The response to outbreak has boosted community cohesion and increased online activity though services & busi-nesses have suffered.

Bringing together partners & prioritiesBeware the person fo-

cused on single issues

and quick fixes! Reviving

a town centre’s fortunes

involves understanding

the issues, the linkages

between them and coordi-

nating the work of partners

with the passion, skills and

resources to tackle them..

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Taking the partnership forward

t is important to have a clearly-focused partnership in place to drive things forward. This could focus seperately

on key physical and promotional themes with a coordinating ‘hub’ communicating & engaging with the wider community.

Partnership working is effective when effort is put in to get it right. In this way, District, County & Town Councils, Leiston Together, the Community Land Trust & key community groups & businesses, can all play to their strengths to improve the town centre. A ‘forward framework’ formalises this thinking with a business plan defining how partners will work together & an action plan of agreed projects.

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Two broad themesork to revitalise Leiston town centre could be organised as

two distinct themes linked by effective coordination.

1. Managing growth, active travel and streetscape to increase access & foot-flow.

2. Strengthening town centre identity, diversification and digital development to boost appeal.

Work to address these two themes needs to be connected by effective coordination & clear communications with the wider community.

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Participating in district-wide work

ork to improve Leiston town centre will benefit from being part of the wider East Suffolk Towns Initiative (ESTI). As well as providing initial support for planned

projects in Leiston, it could fund cost-saving collaboration with neighbouring towns. It will also enable links to the parallel district-wide parking review and Smart Towns project.

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Smart Towns project

After being piloted in Framlingham, the East Suffolk Smart Towns project is being rolled-out to other towns across the district. It offers investment in digital infrastructure & skills.

Town parking review

Roll-out of the district-wide Parking Review will benefit town centre customers & businesses through simplified tariffs, new payment technology & smart monitoring of usage.

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Creating a collective Forward Framework

ackling town centre issues can be organised

in different ways. It is important to plan now to build on Leiston’s track record in prtnership working in ways that will serve the town for a decade ahead.

Getting organised

A ‘forward framework’ helps everyone ‘row in the same direction’ by defining the ‘how’ & the ‘what’ of future activity. Successful delivery of a town centre framework depends on ‘how’ this is organised by understanding the foundations that bring

stakeholders together; the appropriate organisational form; finances; and forward planning that defines the commitment, communication & coordination of partners with the wider community. This enables partners to ‘play to their strengths’.

Coordinating delivery

Delivery of a successful town centre strategy involves the coordination of a range of functions including ‘place-shaping’; planning and property; business support; community and culture; marketing and events. This is achieved by locally-led action.

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Evidence-led

A Leiston town centre forward framework

needs to continue to be evidence-led through gathering data, monitoring impacts, understanding business performance & consulting customers.

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Engaging partners

A coordinating partnership can play an

important enabling role in engaging partners, agreeing priorities, coordinating activity, involving stakeholders, securing new resources & communicating progress.

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Effective actions

Delivering successful town centre

change involves developing solutions to address identified needs, clarifying roles, coordinating activity & monitoring impacts through routine surveys.

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Next Steps

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Enhanced streets & public spaces

Target: Increased positive perceptions about appearance, cleanliness, experi-ence and overall sentiments for the town centre with resultant boost to foot-flow and dwell times

Improved links to local homes

Targets: Plan for increased trips on foot & by bike to the town centre from new & existing homes with resultant reduction in priority for parking improvements & increased foot-flow around town.

Valued mix of local shops & services

Target: Increased digital marketing by businesses; improved customer percep-tions of combined retail & services mix; boosted business performance & confi-dence recorded in follow-up surveys.

Strengthened identity & appeal

Targets: Improved business confidence; enhanced digital activity; greater public participation in events; & increasingly positive perceptions of Leiston’s identity that boosts users’ satisfaction.

Delivering joined-up solutionsCreating a ‘can-do’ attitude with measurable change

Delivering successful town centre change is a long-term venture involving vision, ambition, a broad approach and coordinated delivery amongst local partners. Here are some suggested building blocks of successful action planning

focused on measurable targets for tracking change. It is vital for local partners to keep focused on such outcomes.

It can be done!

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East Suffolk comparisonsne of the added benefits of surveying East Suffolk towns simultaneously, is the chance for neighbouring towns to compare & learn from each other.

The detailed town reports that accompany these summaries include an overview of East Suffolk-wide comparisons. As well as giving comparable context, this provides a first step towards towns working together to tackle common issues, share tips on how they operate, see how they might diversify or make the most of distinctive differences that might be jointly marketed.

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Valueing local services

Groups can get together from across East Suffolk to share what works. Leiston, for example, can share how its access to local services and cultural activities and events are highly valued compared to neighbouring towns.

Enhancing appeal

Combining comparable data & local knowledge, helps understand how to improve neighbouring towns’appeal. Data, for example, reinforces Leiston’s need to focus on enhancing its appearance relative to other towns.

Prepared for East Suffolk Council

by Chris Wade, Director, aka @man_about_towns

The People & Places Partnership Ltd.

The Future Business Centre, Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge, CB4 2HY

chris.wade@people-places.net

www.people-places.net