THIS final part of the series confirms the ideas that are considered financially and socially viable.

No grass cutting, no charity subsidies, no to lots of things the Northern town councils used to do.

All of which means that reducing car parking charges is not on their radar either.

But this is exactly one tactic that is needed right now to rejuvenate town centres. Other, much more radical changes are necessary to rejuvenate our Northern town centres in the long term.

1 A zero tolerance to anti social behaviour. Without this nothing will ever change.

2 A total change in attitude to service sector/minimum wage work and careers. Career pathways must be created where none exist today to encourage local youths to take up jobs currently very well supplied by immigrants.

3 People have to come back into towns to live. The UK Government needs to stop all greenfield expansion — the General Public don’t want it and it will force councils to develop brownfield sites and consider the NTUrban /Housing Association proposition Wholesale demolition of dilapidated buildings and shops is necessary because there is no incentive whatsoever for a single shop landlord to refurbish his store to a high standard when he or she is surrounded by a ‘sea of grot’! We need to create the squares and parks of Kensington and Mayfair.

4 Town centre inhabitants needed to be supplemented with tourists and business visitors.

5 NTUrban card for discounts and reduced rates on all town amenities such as sport, theatres and shops for example.

6 Reduce the eyesore of empty shops by increased use of ‘pop-up’ shops for temporary use by cultural organisations.

7 Significant increase in numbers of amenities and venues in Northern towns to encourage the ‘middle classes’ to come into town.

8 People living permanently in town need convenience stores, delicatessens, coffee shops, and brasseries open all hours of the day.

9 Those town outlets selling food should be supplied, wherever possible, by serious local ‘farmers markets’ which need in turn to replace the increasingly tawdry current town markets that sell inferior food.

10 Break the super concentration of large drinking taverns. The police might think it’s a good idea, but this is where the anti social behaviour starts.

MIKE Phillips, managing director of Purepages Group in Church Bank, Bolton, is an ex-director of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG.

Company projects include a global healthcare and medical marketing system medicourse.com with comprehensive and detailed UK career profiles medicourse.com/careers