AMT Public

Small towns exhibit a range of different characteristics based upon their heritage, industries and communities. In an era of growth and change, the challenge will be to understand how these differences can benefit towns strategically.

A discussion group at the Small Towns for Tomorrow Conference focused on the importance of the individuality and diversity of small towns and how to maintain this within in a broader vision for small towns over the long-term.

Key points

1. The overarching question is where do you see your town in 15 to 20 years? What is the vision, what are the obstacles? Where is your town within the local settlement framework? How might the work to uncover this be funded?
2. To answer this one needs to understand how the town and its hinterland work. There needs to be incorporation of low tech working opportunities.
3. Learning from Town Teams, there is a need to involve all sections of the community in addressing these points, paired with evidence and data so that a vision can emerge.
4. Local information must be part of the process – focus groups and surveys are a good way of understanding local needs and issues, but need to be informed by a wider understanding of the context and possibilities available for development.
5. Using the successes and failures of other towns as evidence to inform strategy,
6. The importance of intuition as well as an evidence base, such as anecdotes, stories and so on, ensuring that local people contribute to this.
7. To address the original question (in point 1), is it possible to link the strategic evidence with the elements of uniqueness/ anecdotes/ description of the towns, in order to provide a holistic understanding of a town?

Do you agree with these key points? Add your comments below.