5 Town Network

Joint Working

The Network through initiating a number of joint projects has a well-established culture of joint working on common priorities and challenges within Coastal West Sussex and beyond. Colleagues from across the 5 Towns have also begun to create linkages and share experiences across a range of specialist subjects. The wider network consists of over 150 members from across Portsmouth to Dover re-enforcing the cross boundary working and adding value. The following has been covered :

In March 2006, CACI, a leading consultancy company specialising in town centre and shopper profiling were commissioned to compile individual retail studies on each of the 5 Towns and additionally for the city of Chichester. The retail study detailed the current retail offer, shopper’s profiles, competing retail centres and potential retailers and shoppers that could be attracted to the area.
See attached summary of report (.PDF 503kb)
In April 2007, Donaldson’s Property Consultants were awarded a contract to provide specialist property advice for the period of April 2007 to March 2009 to developments coming forward from each of the 5 town’s masterplans.
In June 2007, a Coastal Opportunities event took place promoting Coastal West Sussex as a place to invest to prospective developers by successfully demonstrating partnership working between local authorities and developers within the towns. As a result of this, Bognor Regis in particular had several enquiries into available sites post the event.
In February 2008, a Hotel & Accommodation Futures Study for the Coastal West Sussex strip has been commissioned. This is being completed by Hotel Solutions in partnership with Tourism South East. This research will be available from August 2008 and be used to look at the future development potential of the hotel and short stay accommodation sectors among the 5 Towns. The 5 masterplans recognise the importance of a healthy hotel and visitor accommodation industry to future tourism and economic growth and this study will enable the Network to have a good understanding of the sector, its future prospects and how we can best support its future development.

The 5 Towns Network funded the South Coast Design Forum (SCDF) for the financial year of 2007/08 to set up the design forum in the Coastal West Sussex strip. A steering group has been set up consisting of local businesses and chaired by Peter Murray of Wordsearch. By working closely with the Design Forum, this has meant a better understanding for each of the towns of the importance of design and sustainability within the physical environment and is enabling the Network to engage with the private sector, something that has not yet been achieved. Joint events to raise the profile of the SCDF and 5 Towns Network are being organised and will be advertised shortly on our upcoming events page. To get involved with this, please contact Gemma Warr.

Case Study Evaluation of the 5 Town Network

The Gilfillan Partnership Ltd carried out an external evaluation during February and March 2008 of the 5 Towns Network as part of wider evaluation of the Coastal West Sussex Partnership. Please see attached case study available to download from the linke below for summary of achievements, successes, challenges and lessons learnt of the Network since 2004 and next steps for the future.

Case Study Report by Gilfillan Partnership Ltd (.PDF 52kb)