Ruthin Future: Contingent practices to reimagine a rural Welsh town

Jones, Matthew

Abstract

The political lens is shifting to smaller settlements and Governments in the UK, Ireland and beyond are recognising the need to support smaller places, for example through ‘town centre first’ policies, en-hanced funding for high streets and revitalization of historic buildings. In a post-pandemic world, new understandings of living, working and leisure offer the opportunity to radically rethink what our towns are for and how they can be reimagined with local people at their heart. But how can this be achieved, and what are the practices needed to achieve positive change?

Ruthin, North Wales, is used as a case study to explore the implementation of a long-term plan for a sustainable future for the town. Since 2010, the author has led the co-design of Ruthin Future, a com-munity-led town plan developed for Ruthin Town Council alongside local stakeholders and the com-munity. Combining small scale and thrifty ‘DiY’ interventions with larger scale transformational ambitions, the plan is founded on a town centre first approach and emphasises community wellbeing and resilience. This paper explores how the ambitions and initiatives emerging from each phase of the project were shaped by networks of relationships and agendas, opportunities and negotiations- where bold ambitions meet the messy and contingent realities of the fudging, connecting, mediating and bridging needed to make change happen.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference
• Start Date: Aug 29, 2023
• End Date: Sep 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2023
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11491756