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We have become a society concerned with material possession and consumerism. Town planning is as much to do with political philosophy as with the physical fabric of the spaces. Those people who always go for the cheapest option, commend market forces and sway towards individualism over socialism are ironically those that hate the idea that town centres are dying. Pubs are classic example of this incongruent thinking, socialisation at work, yet some political parties promote an emphasis on the individual. Towns are very much the same, if we want well planned towns it's no good placing emphasis on individual elements but a whole plan.
Town centres have declined by our actions, internet shopping and out of town shopping. Personally I do not like this but it is as Rick says 'progress'. Collectively society has made this happen and as a result town centres (more to the point, town and district councils) need to rethink what happens in them. I still no reflection of this in the master planning taking place in Dover and I still think we are being sold short in so many of the planning decisions being made in Dover. In Folkestone the other night I noticed the number of good pieces of contemporary architecture springing up in the town (I do not mean Asda) planners are thinking about the quality of what developers are offering and if it's not right, it clearly doesn't go up. Why do we have massive enquiries about positive additions to the town (e.g the market square screen) and have no objections to the construction of the Woolworths building or the Brewers fayre/millers building? What is going on?
It's interesting that Keith mentions Barnsley that is a town of relative deprivation that has also seen it's fair amount of hard times. When we talk about 'world class development' Barnsley has been wonderfully progressive in addressing this by getting Wil Alsop to come up with an amazing masterplan. Alsop actually looks at modern attitudes to town centres and attempt to facilitate 'progress' as opposed to randomly stab in the dark at what might work. Although they realise this will not happen overnight Barnsley have a really exciting future that many are very positive about.
I only shop in the town centre and make a point of supporting local business, but it requires everyone to do the same to save town centres as we know them. I like the ideas raised by Roger placing more emphasis on going into town for the sake of going into town. Eat, drink, and pick up some bits of shopping. This is how I use town and it's great fun. A pound of beef sausages, some wet wipes and a cheeky pint of ale, provided an hours worth of entertainment yesterday. It sure beats sitting in front of a HD 100" widescreen TV watching Jeremy Kyle and scoffing at the dysfunctional nature of society (oh the irony) or enduring the Tesco experience.