Making Town Centres More Attractive: The Questionnaire

Tower Hamlet council has commissioned a company called MCA (based on the Isle of Mull) to carry out a small study of the town centres involving 3/4 traders and similar number of residents to get their views on how the town centres could be made more appealing and attractive to encourage people to spend more time/money in them. The Report is expected to inform the council as it considers the future promotion of the town centres.

Please copy and paste this questionnaire into a word document or email, complete the questions and return it to:administrator@mcass.co.uk or call T: 01681 700750 and ask them to email the questionaire to you. 

Your views are important - make it count!  Replies must be in by Friday  21 May 2010

Town centre assessment. Name of Centre:

Specific shopping choices

How much would more of these varieties of shop improve the town centre	Very much	Fairly	Not at all	Notes
Food and drink (bakers, juice bars, wholefoods, butcher, grocers etc.)
Clothes and fashion
Health and Beauty (barbers, chemists, hairdressers, health clubs, etc)
Home and garden (DIY, furnishings, florists)
Pubs and restaurants
Other shops (audio, banks, cycle, dry cleaners, jewellers, newsagents, etc)

Questions on types of fashion and clothes shopping 

Clothes and fashion shops often add vitality to a town centre. What kinds of fashion shop would you like to see ?	A lot	Moderately	Not at all	Notes
International designer shops
International designs within shops
Value design (e.g. M&S or New Look)
Mainstream High Street names
Niche fashion outlets
Second hand designer labels
Other (state)

Questions on cultural and art retailing 

Art and culture industries can enhance a shopping trip. How important are these ?	Very important	Fairly important	Not important	Notes
Shop units for designer / retailers in the town centre
Retail squares and clusters for designers
Having a cultural quarter in the town centre
Premises for clubs, theatre and bands
Space for exhibitions and performances
Presence of design & hi-tech consultancies
Other (state)

Questions on ethnic diversity and culture

How much should this town centre contribute to the cultural enrichment of Tower Hamlets through its ethnic diversity	A lot	Moderately	Not at all	Notes
By having more focus on specialist trades
By hosting festivals and events
By greater promotion of diverse cuisines
By stimulating more social interaction
By sports and street theatre
By the creation of a cultural trail
Other (state)

Questions on attractiveness to different age groups

How much would these features make this town centre attractive to the following groups (1-10; 10 is ‘very attractive’)	Young people	Older people	Families	Notes
Variety and number of interesting shops
Safe space for wandering about
Socialising with diverse ethnic groups
Good links with cultural attractions
Having frequent festivals / events
Being safe and open at night
Having a street market
Other (state)

Questions on the social functioning of the town centre 

How much would you approve of the following social activities in the centre	Very much	Moderately	Not at all	Notes
Outdoor cafes and tables on the street
Shops with bigger more flexible frontages
Evening shopping events
Clusters of shops rather than parades
Higher quality street markets
More spaces for people to circulate
Other (state)

Some details on yourself

How would you describe yourself under the following categories
Age	16-30	31-40	41-50	51-60	60-75	Over
Ethnicity	White	Asian /Asian British	Black /Black British	Mixed / dual heritage	Other	Prefer not to say
Gender	Male	Female
Employed status	Self employed	Employed	Unemployed	Other

Other issues of interest in making this town centre more attractive:

Thank you very much for completing this questionnaire. It will help Tower Hamlets Council to plan for making this town centre more successful.

Martin Caldwell and Glyn Austin

MCA Regeneration

Working with Tower Hamlets Council

Tel No. 01681 700750.

administrator@mcass.co.uk