City Centre Strategy: Action for the New Millennium

Partnership: overseeing the agenda for change

In July 1997 the City of Edinburgh Council proposed the establishment of an inter agency group, representing a wide range of city centre interests, to conduct a comprehensive examination of Edinburgh City Centre. This led to the preparation of two reports: an interim report published in May 1998 identified key issues facing the city centre. A final report: ‘Managing Edinburgh’s City Centre’, was published in January 1999. This programmed a number of key actions to help improve accessibility to, from and within the city centre, to strengthen the retail offering and to maintain and improve environmental quality.

As well as gathering a wealth of information from a wide variety of sources and conducting extensive stakeholder consultation, the group has overseen a number of significant initiatives during this period.

The next stage has been to carry this work forward to produce an agreed vision and action orientated strategy for the city centre, which will help to sustain and improve its level of performance and competitiveness well into the next century. ‘Action for the new millennium: Edinburgh City Centre’ provides a health check for the centre, including an assessment of its assets and areas of weakness. This leads to a number of key challenges being highlighted. A number of sub strategies are put forward to address these challenges. Finally, the document identifies the action that is required to realise the strategy and the partners whose involvement is necessary to make it work.

The Strategy

• reflects the views of the private and public sector and the people of Edinburgh
  
  

• identifies a vision for the city centre and a clear direction as to where it is going
  
  

• describes the current initiatives and priorities for future action
  
  

• promotes and markets the city centre
  
  

• gives as context and direction for the city centre management companies
  
  

• provides a clear agreed framework to guide public and private investment
  
  

• gives confidence in the overall future direction of the city centre
  
  

• will be carried forward by the key stakeholders in partnership with all city centre interests.

To purchase a copy of the report contact Lillian Trace on 0131 469 3613.