“It’s our city, and a city we’re very proud of.”
It was great to share a platform with two council cabinet members at the Heritage Network ‘High Street Regeneration: Collaborating for Success’ event in Newport this week, and to hear their take on the past, present and future of Newport city centre.
Interesting too to walk-see the city centre solo and later join the tour led by council regen and place team members. As the image says: “There’s a Lot to Like”.
It was encouraging also to hear just how much is already known about the vacant property they have, the barriers to let and the thinking about what could occupy them going forward.
Earlier the conference had focused for a time on the role of arts & crafts, creative, culture and community, and the confidence that these sectors have an even more significant role to play yet was heartening too.
From our perspective we were able to share with delegates here and from other towns in Wales and further afield, our belief in the importance of having a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ to lead on tackling #highstreet vacancy, and case studies from places that have seen big reductions in empty unit numbers as a result.
I closed with: “We know how to do this. Let’s go”, hoping the message is reaching all the places with vacancy rates in the mid / high teens or over 20%, plus those with large, tricky-to-let units or concerns about the mix of uses they now have.
If that’s your town or city centre we’d love to hear from you…
