News and Views

This section offers news and views about Town Centre related issues. Regular articles by Simon Quin are sure to get you talking about the issues of the day.

If you want to comment on any of these articles, you can email me with specific points at simon.quin@atcm.org or you can post thoughts and questions in the on-line Discussion Forum, though that option is only open to ATCM members.

Spreading the TCM Concept
Tuesday 22nd April 2008

Almost 200 people from the public and private sectors spent last Saturday afternoon in Warsaw discussing Town Centre Management. The delegates heard about initiatives that have been launched in Poznan, Lodz, and Belchatow, as well as an overview and examples from the UK given by ATCM. Organised by the Polish Planning Forum, the event attracted senior national and regional politicians, leading academics, major developers and investors, as well as local authority officials and it attracted national television coverage.

The key role that town and city centre management can have in promoting vitality and viability through a partnership approach that marries strategic development with delivery on the ground, has attracted widespread interest in a country that is seeing substantial investment, including significant out of town development by international retailers. Finding ways to ensure a competitive advantage for town and city centres, perhaps in some cases developing new roles for them, is a concern for many urbanists in the country. Whilst developing a solution appropriate to Poland, there is a growing interest in experience elsewhere in Europe. Learning from that experience and applying it as effectively as possible will hopefully help Polish town and city centres to recover their vitality and viability and once again serve their communities well.