At grassroots level, Rhuthun/Ruthin appears to be taking a unique approach to regeneration (if "regeneration" is the right word). Few seem to give credit where it's due. Well, seemingly to much acclaim, the Mayor presented the town's strategy at Thursday's Denbighshire town centre summit.Now, news of said summit is hard to come by. Who was present? What exactly was discussed and, more to the point, what was concluded? What were the actions? When I asked, no one was available for comment, which just shows I don't know the right people. What I do know is that the Mayor has uploaded his presentation to YouTube. Be warned, you'll need to hover your finger over the 'pause' button, as the slides rip through faster than a motorcyclist on warm summery day.
The presentation first considers the strategy's achievements to date, like branding/marketing, which includes:
- An attractive third-A4-leaflet jointly by the marketing group and produce market, the focus of which is where you can get to within an hour's drive. Conversely, it means we are only an hour from many places. We've not tested it but possibly some to the east may be optimistic but it's only a guide. It gives taster information in an attractive way.
- A set of swish postcards.
- In spite of admitting to this being a home-grown effort, the website still looks professional. The Mayor has remedied criticism that's come via comments on this blog.
- Can't say I've seen much of the advertorials, as they're presumably aimed at visitors though the Christmas one was well written.
And then there's the new focus on the public realm, public space and built environment, something we neglect at our peril. In particular, we now have "Rhuthun: market town of the future". This cost the same as the leasing of the Christmas lights, a little less per person than a litre of unleaded. Seems good value to me. Though looking towards small scale, incremental changes within the constraints of available budgets, it's interesting that this seems to have adopted the title we first set out, The Masterplan.Equally, it provides a toolkit for the town and that others might use. It tries to stimulate thought about what could and should be done. It's currently trying to identify sites that might benefit from improvement and we can expect some output at the end of the month, so we're told, at a public exhibition (we haven't miss it, have we?). Later are promised design guides and a plan of actions…
Be the second to view the YouTube summit marketing presentation
If anyone knows the outcome of the summit, please leave a Comment.