Traditional town centre hierarchies should be replaced with local town networks, according to the Town and Country Planning Association.
Speaking at a TCPA conference, trustee Lee Shostak called for a shake-up of the system: “While big towns and cities will remain vital, their place in the hierarchy must sometimes give way to the newcomers. The challenge for the planners is to ensure that the up-and-coming centre boosts the whole network around it.”
Shostak said that the key to this was linking the town centres with efficient public transport.
The delegates claimed that transport links between local town centres would provide a boost for struggling centres that were at the lower end of the shopping league table.
Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott rejected two rival plans to redevelop the centre of Bracknell as a major shopping centre, presented by Legal & General and Allied London Properties, after the inspector deemed the plans inappropriate to the area’s “approved hierarchy of centres”.
Prescott decided that the schemes would have a negative impact on nearby Wokingham town centre.
EGi News 25/05/01
