Creating talented town teams; reviewing progress in ... · visitor attractions and encourage...

Creating talented town teams;reviewing progress in Pembrokeshire

www.people-places.net

Creating talented town teams2

Research Partners

Atkins Ltd. with Chris Jones Regeneration and the

People & Places Partnership were commissioned by Pembrokeshire County Council to review the

performance of six town teams in Fishguard and

Goodwick, Haverfordwest, Milford Haven, Pembroke, Pembroke Dock and Tenby

Reviewing progress in Pembrokeshire 3

his study looked at the Town Team model established by Pembrokeshire County Council across six towns in

the County since 2013. There was a strong focus on understanding ‘how’ the teams are working, how they have evolved and their future organisational development needs.

Understanding our town centres is about working with the people & place. About creating talented town teams and engaging with the community.

About understanding the issues to develop and deliver solutions.

The ‘how’ & ‘what’ of town teams

review was also undertaken of ‘what’ the individual town teams have achieved through project delivery, strategic

influence, matched funding, any measurable impacts and likely future scope. The achievements were assessed against the county-wide and locally-identified regeneration objectives for each town.

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Pembrokeshire’s story own teams were established in each of the six Pembrokeshire towns in the summer of 2013. A capital fund of £750,000 was made available for the towns

to bid into alongside county-led projects such as town centre WIFI and branding. Since these origins the focus and ways of working in each town have evolved to reflect local concerns.

Multi-sector working

In 2012 Pembrokeshire County Council conducted a review of its town centres, focusing on: issues and challenges; impacts of council services; opportunities for regeneration and potential for improvement. A move towards a mixture of uses through local partnerships, multi-sector working and the development of strategic plans was seen as key.

Facing common issues

Pembrokeshire’s six main towns initially identified a number of common issues where a coordinated local focus was considered key: the role and function of the town; out-of-town/internet retailing; streetscape and maintenance; parking issues; branding or place-shaping activities; vacant and boarded-up retail premises; businesses’ activities.

Haverfordwest’s strategic approach

Alongside the ‘quick wins’ of successful

events, the town’s long-term vitality will be

secured by robust town-centre-first policies

and masterplanning backed-up by appropriate

land assembly and re-use of brownfield sites.

TPembroke’s cultural connections

The town team works closely with the Castle in encouraging visitors to experience the centre and there is a great opportunity to further boost community and cultural activity.


Joining-up Milford Haven

Emerging experience in events and shop local needs to knit together with arts, culture, leisure, heritage, community facilities and link to the Marina.

Fishguard & Goodwick ‘hub’

Creating cultural space and events along with its theatre and strong community organisations will underpin the town’s character and role as a hub.

Re-using property in Tenby

Early successes such as the window wraps project provide a forerunner to developing a property strategy that looks at meanwhile uses and marketing.

Pembroke Dock’s 101 projects

Plans are in-hand to undertake 101 community-led projects with the Town Council and other partners in a way that is compatible with the draft masterplan.


FOUNDATIONSThe town team development process

should be underpinned by an up-to-date review of existing strategies, collective

objectives and baseline evidence of issues and stakeholders’ perceptions.

FUNCTION Action planning should begin with a clear statement of identified issues; recognition of council and partners’

roles; definition of function in creating suitable responses and identifying impact

FORM & FOLKNext comes the development of an appropriate organisational ‘form’ to coordinate activity including defining

the roles of key partners and wider stakeholder engagement through ‘folk’

with communications at the core.

Tauton High Street & Caste Green6


The F-factors framework his review of town centre regeneration in Prembrokeshire uses the F-factors framework for success in town team development created by the People & Places Partnership. Tohese F-Factors have been adopted by the Local Government Association as the basis for their recently published handbok on revitalising town centres. The F-factors guidance

includes a self-assessment ‘town centre checklist’ that was used to guide ongoing delivery by the Pembrokeshire town teams.

The F-factor checklist was used to create a series of prompts to ask town team partners about current and future processes in organisational development and the delivery of town centre improvements. The feedback from these questions were invaluable in reviewing and revising both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of town team development.

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The F-factors prompts revealed high satisfaction levels in Prembrokeshire with the County Council’s support and stakeholder engagement. Ongoing delivery challenges were also highlighted.


Understanding teams longside reviewing the town teams’ functions, it was equally appropriate for the Pembrokeshire groups to review their terms of reference for how they are

structured, governed, their membership and relationships with partner organisations. Such a review was aided by peer-to-peer learning and sharing between town teams facilitated by the County Council. This review included redefining the relationship with the County Council as its future policy, funding and staffing support is determined and its backing for a masterplanning process evolves.

Coordinating role

The Haverfordwest town team acts as a coordinating body for town-wide groups including strategic influence through the master-planning process. Town team partners help deliver projects following discussions and funding agreed at meetings.

Building trust

The Pembroke town team serves as a sub-committee of the Town Council attended by local groups. This has successfully brought together different groups and the resulting trust, coordination and understanding has been a valuable step-forward.

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Foundations laidSolid foundations depend on the inspiration of a defined ‘cause’ and clearly stated objectives. This needs to be underpinned by long-term funding commitments; stake-holder involvement; and awareness of good practice.In all of the towns, it is now timely to refresh the existing foundations based on evi-dence and accomplishments.

Faith in the folkMature town teams require the combination of having an effective Chair as a “go to” figure; a suitably skilled and representative board; em-ployment of necessary staff adding value not replacing volunteer involvement; man-aging trained volunteers; and having established link-ages for joint working with other stakeholder groups.

Forward planningHaving evolved in different ways during their early years, the town teams need to reflect on whether they have the right skill sets to perform their future functions effec-tively. Forward planning can include sharing good practice on issues as diverse as pop-up shops, digital and app develop-ments, event support, brand-ing and communications.

Reviewing past, present & futureUsing the F-factors check-

list, the review of town

team performance surveyed

stakeholders’ perceptions of

initial expectations, satisfac-

tion with town teram prog-

ress and future aspirations.

Learning such lessons is im-

portant in improving perfor-

mance, bulding backing and

maintaining momentum.


The added-value achieved to-date

embrokeshire County Council’s financial contribution of £750,000 towards the six town centres levered in £913,855

through match funding. The funding has enabled a wide range of projects which would not have happened without this focus and targeted allocation. Analysis of funding also shows where town centres have a long-term vision and plan, there is a greater likelihood of external funding being levered in.

Some town teams have established a platform for future investment through enhanced identities, marketing and promotion and physical capital works. Some of these have been integrated; others piecemeal. Emerging masterplans will also provide the opportunity to build on the people-based foundations of the town teams and find ways of partnering and unlocking assets.

Attracting new external funds

averfordwest’s town team has worked closely with the

County Council to attract significant extra funding and activity including the £4million Heritage Lottery Fund assisted Townscape Heritage Initiative and a new riverside library, gallery and information centre.

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Ways of workingey determinants of a town team’s future organisational form will depend on its function, strategic relationships, funding and community representation:

• balance between strategic influence and local action

• level and nature of local authority involvement

• need for financial accountability and independence

• ability to involve with local community and businesses

The County Council can assist by clearly defining its role.

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Tempting tourists

High quality and strategically-sited capital projects such as the Richard III statue and viewing platform in Pembroke can add to the visitor attractions and encourage foot-flow.

Animating with events

Beer festivals, bungee jumps and gamers gatherings are amongst the creative and cost-effective ways that Pembroke Dock town team is adding animation in a self-sustaining way.


Master-planning embrokeshire, tCounty Council has began supporting

town masterplanning to complement the work of the town teams. The impetus for this comes in-part from a desire expressed by some of the town teams for a strategic approach. It is important to understand town teams’ local roles in developing and delivering the masterplans as part of the wider regeneration process and structures.

The emerging shape of property investments and planning decisions will have a long-term impact on the vitality of town centres and it is important that town

teams are engaged in such strategic processes alongside their work to deliver tangible short-term improvements and animate places.

The masterplanning exercise will provide the vision and frameworks to guide such activity and this needs to be followed-up through land assembly, fund raising and business engagement.

In Haverfordwest, for example, masterplanning combined with robust town-centre-first planning policies need to be further backed up by appropriate land assembly to facilitate new development and the re-use of brownfield sites.

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Broadening function

As town teams develop, they can broaden

their functions to cover economic (business & retail enhancement), environmental (place-shaping) and social (community and culture) objectives in the towns.

1Business planning

Alongside reviewing their functions,

town teams can review their ways of working in a business plan covering structure, governance, membership, communications and stakeholder engagement.

2Monitoring impact

With their existing track records, it is

also timely to remedy the lack of baseline data and introduce the monitoring of impacts on a regular basis. This could be easily achieved through biennial surveys.

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Next Steps


Folk: matching skills with needs

Town teams should conduct a skills audit for board members; volunteers; staff and partners. This should include communi-cations skills. Council contacts can assist in brokering support from other depart-ments and strategic partners.

Function: playing to team strengths

Town teams can share their good prac-tice in community, culture, marketing and events delivery. Masterplanning should help assist with place-shaping and property interventions. Specialist input is required to assist retail enhancement.

Forward planning; ‘how’ and ‘what’

Town teams should prepare an organi-sational ‘forward framework’ covering ‘how’ and ‘what’ through business and action plans. The Council can assist through technical support and use spe-cialist guidance on impact monitoring.

Form: reviewing ‘ways of working’

Evolving town teams should periodically review their structure, governance, mem-bership and relationships with partners. This should include a dialogue about changing council policy, funding, staffing support and masterplanning.

Preparing a new ‘forward framework’Charting the continued development of talented town teamsIndividual town teams should capture review findings by preparing a ‘forward framework’ comprising of a delivery-focused action plan and an organisational business plan. Such forward frameworks cover how the town team operates alongside the detailed delivery proposals in the accompanying action plan. Here are some key elements of these frameworks:

It can be done!


Measuring successmprovements to any aspect of town centre performance are best delivered through a strong focus on the benefits sought. In continuing the

enhanacement of Pembrokeshire towns, it will be important to entice customers in ways that enhance their experience, encourage more visits and boost spend. If town teams can collectively keep focused on serving customers’ needs in this way, then individal businesses will be able to benefit and prosper. To measure the success of improvements it is therefore important to use indicators like footfall and business confidence.

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Increased footfall

Increased footfall and wider foot-flow in town centres provide easily measured indicators of success. Digital tracking techniques offer detail about frequency of visits, dwell-times and foot-flow between places.

Confident businesses

It is important to keep talking to town centre businesses to know how increased footfall is converting in to spend. Equally it is important to understand other local concerns that may be impacting on businesses.

Prepared by Chris Wade, Director, aka @man_about_towns

The People & Places Partnership Ltd.

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

[email protected]

www.people-places.net

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