Planners note: a town’s not a town without people

TOWNS HAVE been in a constant state of flux since Neolithic man threw his axe on the ground and built his first earth shelter. Pretty soon along came another Neolithic man (or woman) who was happy to trade a basket of berries for a leather hide or two.

The idea of commerce was born. And with it came the concept of towns, settlements where people banded together to form sustainable communities.

In this basic purpose our understanding of “town” remains the same. However, in the many thousands of years since the Stone Age, towns have evolved to become urban centres that would blow the minds of even our more recent ancestors.

Many of our Yorkshire towns expanded during the industrial boom years of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Markets thrived, a cheap and convenient place to buy victuals.

Pioneering retailers, including Marks & Spencer, which started on a stall in Leeds in 1884 and Burton, “the Tailor of Taste”, catered for a new consumer – urban working people with cash in their pockets.

And as commerce thrived, municipality was invented. Town hall rules replaced the old traditions of tolls and taxes that had kept the wheels of trade turning since medieval times.

Private enterprise thrived. Property investment was born. Now there were speculators building and buying grand public buildings, shopping streets and arcades, often leased to traders on rental agreements.

Along came business rates, which shopkeepers were obliged to pay in return for the privilege of the right to trade.

This system has barely been tinkered with for centuries. It is clear that reform is needed.

Empty shops often stand shuttered because no trader is prepared or able to pay the dues demanded. There is huge pressure for change.

Our present town centres seem staid in comparison to those bustling cockpits of commerce of the past.

We’re told which way to walk, where to cross the road, forbidden from loitering in certain areas and generally policed in a way our Tudor ancestors would have found incomprehensible. Ironically, people often feel unwelcome – and long before lockdown.

With this climate as context, we must address the issue of how we want our towns to be in the 21st century.

What do we expect of them? What should they offer? How can they best be planned to meet the needs and expectations not just of today but tomorrow?

All those in charge need to be ahead of the curve. There is no point harking back to some apparently halcyon age and attempting to recreate a pastiche of the past. I’ve seen faux cobbles in some places and it never works. More important is to recognise the crucial balance between big-name retailers and independent traders, who can often teach the chain stores a thing or two about customer service.

I’d love, in my retail dreams, to go into a famous clothing store and be treated with the same courtesy and helpfulness I receive in my favourite local boutiques.

Those towns lucky enough to escape the swinging demolition ball of the 1960s and 1970s should revel in the outstanding architecture that has survived.

Elsewhere, interesting buildings that have fallen into disrepair should be brought back to life. This could be done by extending local authority compulsory-purchase orders or instigating community right-tobuy schemes similar to those in Scotland.

We must accept that retail is not the answer in its own right. Town centres, with public transport hubs on hand, should

The system has not been tinkered with for ages... there is huge pressure for change.

be prioritised as sites for health centres, libraries, schools even.

Planned carefully, this would cut down on car journeys and improve air quality and traffic congestion across entire boroughs.

Town centres stopped being places to live when the slum clearances of the early 20th century demolished streets that were often overcrowded breeding grounds for poverty, crime and disease.

In our region’s cities, many people now live alongside their places of work and social life.

Hitherto, this trend has had limited appeal in towns.

Brownfield and infill sites should be utilised to create family homes, single-person dwellings and retirement complexes. Planning laws must evolve to allow this, safely and with due concern for the wider environment.

After all, without people towns have no point, no purpose and no lifeblood. Neolithic man knew that. But do your local and national politicians?