Forum topic: Regenerating Palmers Green town centre

Karl

Whose throwing stones?? Sue beard replied by saying she was gobsmacked!!

Look its neither here nor there who sets up sites but more importantly those who were born and bred in PG and how they knew the area then to be thriving and booming and looking lush before it got into the wrong hands that do not care otherwise the public will not be agreeing with me on Facebook that it has become a sorry state and no one had spoken up about regenerating the area until I brought up the topic of conversation.

I never once saw a conversation with Sue Beard mentioning how PG needs TLC, so I am gobsmacked...so before you get on your high horse, just be thankyou I took it to the top with Cllr Ahmet Oykener...

Also...It's not about status and titles, but about actions and getting things done...

While Joe now goes off to build his Facebook likes on what a sorry state PG has become its worth reminding ourselves some of the relatively recent and ongoing successes this community has generated off its own back and with its own resources:
• The Palmers Green Community web site (and all its associated);
• PG Jewel in the North web site (and all its associated);
• Talkies Community Cinema, now well into hundreds of screenings and going well beyond PG;
• Carols in the Park;
• Proms in the Park;
• The PG Art Trail;
• The Creative Network;
• PG Tales;
• Streets for Living, who secured almost £1m from the GLA for the area;
• Reimagining PG;
• The Broomfield House Trust and its long running role in seeking to protect and secure the house;
• The UK’s largest concentration and number of street parties;
• The Palmers Greenery, an innovative NFP social enterprise café investing in Broomfield Park;
• The Boroughs centre for Play Streets;
• London’s first Play Quarter;
• Better Streets for Enfield, now a London scale enterprise;
• The Community Friendship Project;
• The Wheel of Community Health and Wellbeing, now a Borough wide tool;
• The Enfield Festival Forum, a PF Festival initiative;
• The Palmers Green Festival;
• The HERE festival;
• Enfield Festival Toolkit;
• The Broomfield Playground group;
• The Community Orchard;
• Floating Lanterns;
• The Broomfield Community Conservatory;
• Wassailing , Bee Day, Apple Day and other orchard events;
• Charity supporting links with such as Mencap and support for scouts and the Duke of Edinburgh Award through the Community Orchard;
• Broomfield Blues;
• Proms in the Park;
• Talkies in the Park in the Dark;
• St Harmonicas, a top 5 London Blues club;
• Palmers Scream, a near year-long festival of writing and performing arts.

And doubtless more that I don’t have at my fingertips. Personally I think that’s a list to be very proud of and reflects immense pride, commitment, effort and creativity within PG and its community.

On regen we will need to wait and see but I will add that I led a walkabout a couple of months back at Cllr Oykener's request which included Peter George and his team looking in more detail at work that has been underway for a number of months, ranging from housekeeping to a game changing project, all identified and initially driven from here within the PG community, before subsequent council acceptance and involvement. "It's happening" is certainly the case, exactly what is still a subject of discussion and has no links to certain, very recent, posts on this thread.

If I understand the new LBE Cabinet listing correctly then we no longer have a position for Economic Regeneration and Business Development (“Regen”), the closest seemingly being “Property and Assets” under Cllr Ahmet Oykener. (NB this is not Housing which does have a dedicated cabinet position.) As we move ever more to a commercial council, and saw the recent appointment of an ED for Environment and Regen from the private (development) sector, Nellie Morris’ posting from the Times (19 May) and its reference to Enfield’s approach may well be saying a great deal about where future land will lie.

This supports what some of us have been saying recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/30/britain-high-streets-shops-marks-spencer?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Another article on the sense behind high street mixing in more ‘experiences’ and ‘social uses’ amongst retail. One for the Council to get involved in and also for landlords and new business ventures to consider.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/04/rip-britain-high-street-stop-bewailing-them-think-afresh?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

“It’s not just about shopping,” says Council leader that has successfully turned around one of the South East's worst and most declining high streets.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/20/succes-in-ashford-stands-as-a-model-for-attracting-shoppers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Inside the recent communication blitz concerning troubles on our high streets is often the mention of the move to the experiential use of retail. At one level this can be direct experience use, eg cinemas, while at another is the use within stores of experience to leverage their core products and / or assets.

MyTime on Green Lanes has been pushing the latter with Brian’s Quiz Nights, Vinyl Nights, spiritual events, live music through to transforming the day time café into an evening cocktail bar.

Pomegranate flowers on Aldermans Hill is a relatively recent PG newbie and now Andreas is pushing his own experiential boat out. Targets for his wreath making classes were comprehensively smashed which has given him the confidence to move into flower arranging classes, and even classes for specific groups – the likes of hen party flower arranging gigs.

Both are the sort of proactive, client focused activity, going beyond the standard and intended to delight people.
But don’t let it be one way if we want to keep such outlets, as I’ve posted before, tell retailers what might be attractive to help them help you: previously being totally out of my depth in choosing a run of flower bunches for Mrs as a birthday present, I suggested to Andreas that I give him cash, in return he gives me “flower vouchers” (at this stage read a few suitable annotated comp. slips), I hand over the birthday present and at stages Mrs draws down a chosen bunch of flowers at a time of her choosing.

First one made up today to her specification and she was well chuffed. Andreas is thinking of making more of it for blokes like me who can’t quite decide between the daffodil and the thistle as being the best fit to give. So, it's all of the credit yet with none of the hassle. What could go possibly go wrong!