We understand how high streets and town centres work

We bring experience and insight to every project, building trusted relationships with clients, stakeholders, and partners.

Our team

Together we provide comprehensive support for destination, town centre and high street regeneration.

AttisTowns brings together a range of independent specialists to help you address the specific challenges of your place.

Our Director Team cover vital elements such as strategic positioning, place management, economic modelling, BID formation, place-making, the nighttime economy, security, destination branding and marketing.

Our additional specialities include staff recruitment, training and tourism and other specific expertise to meet your needs.

Directors

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Paul Barnes
Strategic Positioning and Community Engagement

  • Strategic positioning, advocacy and engaging communities. Former councillor with 25 years’ experience in bringing together businesses and government particularly in retail, hospitality, leisure and planning.

  • New West End Company – 20 years as advisor to the Business Improvement District for London’s West End

    Brompton Road BID and Kings Road BID – establishing Business Improvement Districts

    North West Cambridge – supporting the University of Cambridge’s 150-hectare campus, research and housing development

    Regent Street regeneration – supporting The Crown Estate’s £1.2 billion redevelopment

  • To think strategically and originally, based on years of national experience, but listening to local views to create practical and effective ways forward. 

  • Dependant on enough flexibility to give your visitors what they want.

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Gary Reeves
Partnership and Governance

  • Business Improvement Districts, Town Centre Management, Place Management, Governance. 25 years’ experience in Retail, Property and Place Management.

  • Advisor on the establishment & renewal of Business Improvement District for UK’s 2 International Centres – West End & Knightsbridge.

    Establishment of the first one of only 3 property Business Improvement Districts in the UK.

    Chief Executive – New West End Company, the BID for London’s Oxford St, Regent St. and Bond St.

    Property Director, Bluewater.

  • Balancing the needs of all stakeholders within a commercially driven model which has sustainability at its heart.

  • About innovation and Town Centre partnerships led by property owners.

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Dan Johnson
Placemaking and Public Realm

  • Public realm design and activation, transport planning, sustainability, public health, active travel and air quality.

  • Leicester Square – TfL lead on £22m project to transform the gardens and public realm at the home of British cinema.

    Oxford Street – transport planning and project management of public realm design for the ’Nation’s High Street’.

    Charing Cross Road – regenerating the home of independent bookshops by creating a tree-lined boulevard and cycling corridor.

    Bond Street – TfL lead (and at New West End Company) £9m public realm scheme which increased footway space by 65% and increased footfall by 20%.

  • Analysis of an area, planning and listening to stakeholders to make a destination an attractive, comfortable and accessible place to visit.

  • Local professional and creative hubs as increasingly people choose not to commute to larger cities.

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Hugh Stevenson
Place Branding and Marketing

  • Understanding business challenges to positioning brands and bring them to life creatively. Managing Partner of a brand agency working across sectors with clients in place, infrastructure, cinema, food, property, healthcare, and pet care.

  • East West Rail, Department for Transport – brand development, guidelines and roll out, campaigns, public consultations, brand activation, community engagement and legacy building initiatives.

    Vauxhall One BID – audience segmentation, place brand strategy, identity, destination marketing, cultural events, and inward investment projects. (Vauxhall London brand won Best Place or Nation Brand, Transform Awards 2020 & Best Use of Design, City Nation Place Awards)

    HCA Healthcare UK – UK brand identity, guidelines and roll out for the world’s largest private hospital group.

    Compass Group UK & I – Brand strategy and identity for Restaurant Associates with design, brand environment and rollout for multiple restaurant and café concepts within the group.

  • Bridging the gap between strategic thinking and creative expression to develop brands that drive a new direction for a business or organisation.

  • The focal point for local life. Places that can fulfil a multitude of human needs; social, commercial, cultural.

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Tony Nash
Safety and Security

  • Strategic and tactical security planning / delivery. Crisis / resilience preparation and testing.

  • Former senior police officer leading on developing policing plans for a corporate hotspot of Shoreditch which was the fastest evolving night-time economy in Europe. This covered parts of three London Boroughs and the City of London.

     Co-founder and director of My Local Bobby specialising in public realm security. 

    Has been a consultant to ExCeL developing their crisis management plan and testing along with the dovetail into business continuity. 

    Worked as the International Police Advisor for the rule of law program in Pakistan.

  • Understanding the challenges communities face now whilst horizon scanning those approaching. 

  • Creating a safe and vibrant hub that reflects and embraces its communities and where visiting is a positive experience on any day, at any time. 

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Leighton de Burca
Night-time Economy

  • 10 years’ experience of retail and community-led regeneration, 24-hour place regeneration and management. Focusing on the needs of the community and a place’s unique identity with a specialist in nightlife and culture.

  • Old Market Quarter. Nightlife and retail led regeneration project of one of Bristol’s run-down conservation area neighbourhood high streets. This project which was one of the Mini Portas Pilots lead to winning the 2013 Placemaking Award for Retail-led placemaking.

    Night Watch. Capacity building Bristol’s ailing pub watch scheme and building it into a well-attended statutory group linking Businesses and Regulatory Authorities, enabling the growth and development of the Night Time economy sector by acting as an advocate on matters of policy, policing, planning and licensing which lead to winning an Night Time Industry Association Ambassador of the Night Award in 2019.

    Purple Flag. 7 years on the board of Bristol’s Purple Flag Scheme

    24 Hour Bristol. Setting up a 24-hour city commission which is the voice and influence for a 24-hour city. Linking together Planning, Policy, Licensing, new and existing organisations with an added online hub to not only advocate for a 24-hour city but actively aid in its creation. 

    Night-time Economy representative on Avon and Somerset Police Independent Advisory Group on Counterterrorism.

  • Communication and a partnership working approach is key to ensure residents, businesses and regulatory authorities work together to create a safe and regulated environment for everyone to live, work and socialise in.

  • Putting the heart back into High Streets, curating so they are places people want to live, work and socialise in, whether that be for a cultural or community experience or commerce.

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Carlos Kytka
Special Projects

  • 15 years in five-star hotel management and recruitment. 10 years managing international and European LGBT tourism associations. Business teaching.

  • GETA – Publishing a Reopening Guide to assist the tourism industry come out of hibernation following COVID-19.

    New West End Company – Helped to facilitate London’s West End Christmas Lights.

    Westin Grand Hotel Berlin – Wrote and implemented the corporate security procedures.

    Portfolio International – Recruitment for the first General Manager for the Burj al Arab Hotel, Dubai.

  • Question the big picture. Question the small picture. Create a qualitative and innovative way to move forward continuously.

  • In the overall experience, that is to say, being desirable, innovative and satisfying.

Partners

Alexander Jan
Economic Research and Policy

  • Economic issues facing major cities in relation to planning, transport and other forms of infrastructure, real estate, growth, productivity and competitiveness; local government finance

  • Non-executive chair of two business improvement districts.

    Chief Economic advisor to the London Property Alliance

    Advisor to the EC BID.

    Former Director and Chief Economist at Arup

  • the same as what it's always been - providing somewhere safe, accessible and desirable for people to come and socialise, experience and have fun!

Chrissie Farley
Diversity and Inclusion

  • Diversity and inclusion, broadening participation in the labour market and organisational success.

  • Over 30 years in education and professional development, strategic leadership and consultancy, advocating and creating strategies for equality of opportunity, access, progression and achievement.

    Mentoring and coaching middle managers and senior leaders, for personal and organisational success.

    Production of diverse bespoke curricula, and methodology, for effective leadership development and learning including face to face, and online in the UK and remote master’s degree modules, for staff working in war torn areas.

    Extensive experience of board and project working at national, regional and local level, in strategic and practical innovations for effective participation of local communities in education, training and the labour market.

  • Listening; identifying opportunities for working with, and creating partnerships, which harness knowledge, expertise and opportunities to promote cultures, environments and an economy in which everyone can be the best they can.

  • Vibrant hubs, where people can afford to enjoy living, working, eating and drinking, shopping, socialising and relaxing, exploring arts and culture, leisure, retail, health and well-being and green spaces, safely, and with ease of access for all.

Diane Wehrle
Intelligence and Insights

  • Three decades of experience in delivering intelligence and insights on retail and destination performance as Co-Founder and Marketing and Insights Director at Springboard, and at MRI Software following its acquisition of Springboard. Now working with BID’s, destinations and businesses within the retail and place space, transforming data into actionable insights that drive performance.

  • Establishing footfall analytics as the key measure of performance, implementing the service in 300+ towns and cities across the UK, and in 20+ US cities, enabling individual high streets and BID’s to benefit from objective, robust and timely data on performance to evaluate and demonstrate their success

    Creating a globally recognised benchmark for the performance of UK retail destinations, delivering insights on performance and leading the commentary on retail destinations in the UK media

    Knightsbridge and Kings Road BID’s – amalgamating a range of data sources available to the BID to deliver insights on performance and provide insights that inform levy payers and demonstrate the success of the BID

    Fitzrovia and West Fitzrovia BID’s – delivering insights on the role and function of the BID area and its performance in the light of this, positioning the BID team as the intelligence centre for the District.

  • Being able to distinguish between data – also known as intelligence - and insight, and being able to use the former to deliver the latter.

  • Reflecting the needs and wants of the community it serves.

Duncan Stewart
Customer Insights

  • Expert in customer insights with over 25 years’ experience working client-side and agency side as a Director of one the world’s large customer market research companies before launching 56 Degree Insight together with business partner Jim Eccleston. Experienced working with clients in a wide range of sectors ranging from travel and tourism to food and drink to environment and energy.

  • Environmental charity Changeworks undertaking a programme of research to inform the roll out of their decarbonisation retrofit services.

    Managing customer satisfaction and brand and comms evaluation studies for Anglian Water.

    A major survey of employers and employees in the hospitality sector to inform strategies for Fairwork Convention in Scotland (an organisation which sits within the Scottish Government).

    A series of research projects for Scotland Food and Drink’s insight arm ‘The Knowledge Bank’, tracking the impacts of the cost of living crisis and other macro trends on consumer behaviours from grocery shopping to eating and drinking out of home.

  • Providing clear insights which provide our clients with clarity on the actions they need to take to achieve their goals and future proof their businesses. This is achieved by working in close partnership with clients, really understanding their business and challenges and building this knowledge into the design of research projects.

  • Increasingly focused on business which provide experiences which attract consumers rather than just retail transactions. This may include increasing numbers of independent, local businesses, community meeting places and leisure experiences. During this time keeping track of consumer needs through insights will be more important than ever before to allow us to keep pace trends.

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Ed Hall
Digitalisation

  • Digital broadcasting and retail operations as CEO or consultant for 20 years, in an unusual combination of creative and technical leadership roles.

  • BBC – Management of sale of digital capacity on broadcast platforms.

    Virgin Media – Management consultancy on digital platform management.

    Chipping Norton Digital High Street – Research and development of tools to support a digital high street.

    Launch of ShopEx TV, the first teleshopping company in Nigeria.

  • Testing and research: opinions are easy to find in the digital world; facts are sometimes harder to come by.

  • Dependent on finding ways to make physical high street shopping at least as attractive and simple as digital shopping.

Jackie Bedford
Recruitment and Skills

  • Recruitment

    Employability

    Training and qualifications

    Apprenticeships

    Employment market evaluation

    Expert speaker on BBC, Radio London & LBC and events

    Featured in the Telegraph, Times, Independent, FT & ES

    Career advisor to various schools, colleges and universities

  • CEO and Founder of Step Ahead (27 years) 

    Delivering the innovative recruitment programme - Westminster Works

    Landsec partner, advising & recruiting hospitality and retail staff 

    Southwark Chamber of Commerce

Jace Tyrrell
Global Cities and Capital Investment

  • 1. CAPITAL: Fundraising & Regeneration – highly experienced in mixed ownership precincts

    2. COLLABORATION: Destination Partnerships – structures, strategies and experiences to drive the place-based visitor economy

    3. CAMPAIGNING: Local & Global – advocating collectively for business & investment

  • 1. Leading London’s public/private partnership to secure £100bn in global institutional investment across real estate, energy and infrastructure across all 32 London Boroughs and the Mayor’s Office assets.

    2. Established Australia’s first ‘Improvement District’ across Sydney’s Western Harbour - securing $4m in seed funding, advocating for legislation and establishing the partnerships governance and structure.

    3. World leader in Business Improvement Districts - raising £100m in revenue, delivering a £10m transformation of Bond Street and a business mandate of 99.5% support.

    4. Led five-year destination marketing strategy for London’s West End & Mayfair - a period that consumer spending increased from £5bn - £7.5bn turnover and vacancy rates below 2%.

    5. Advised on customer insights strategy and performance reporting including baseline measurement, operational & resource structures and advance analytics target setting. Clients included the City of London, Singapore and Sydney, Australia. "

  • Never lose sight of the strategic mission - say no more than yes.

  • Whatever the customer finds most valuable to spend their time, money and emotion in - both physical and digital.

Kate Nightingale
Behavioural Strategy and Design

  • Consumer Behaviour, Customer Experience, Innovation, Behaviour Change, Strategy, Behavioural Design (property, brand, UX), Customer Service

  • Global Store Concept for Swarovski, Metaverse/Personalisation Innovation Project for Luxury Marketplace, Global Blueprint of Leisure Centres for Water Babies, Brand Repositioning for Dowsing & Reynolds

  • Going beyond what customers can tell you as at least 95% of decisions are made subconsciously, creating a golden opportunity for those that can strategically tap into people's brains.

  • Community. High streets are designed to bring people in the local community closer together, alleviate loneliness, create important strategic alliances and provide for the community beyond the products and services the businesses selling there can offer. They are more than a collection of spaces. They are the thread that creates the culture of the place.

Katie Blake
Destination Promotion

  • Promoting and protecting places to create vibrant and commercially successful destinations. Over 10 years experience, with a specialism in helping destinations unlock their potential by harnessing tourism to grow UK and international visitation and spend.

  • Battersea Power Station - putting the destination on the map via a tourism strategy for for the development’s UK and international launch.

    Croydon Business Improvement District - securing £1bn in Government funding for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses during the pandemic.

    London’s West End - advisor for 5+ years on place activation and place shaping initiatives including London Luxury Quarter, Oxford Street, Oxford Street Christmas Lights and Lumber London.

    John Lewis - the UK and international 150th anniversary campaign through to launch and relaunches of Stratford and Oxford Street stores.

  • Patience, and a clear framework of goals, objectives and audiences to guide strategy and creative delivery, enabling long and short term planning to achieve success.

  • Community driven, accessible, surprising, welcoming and affordable - get this right, and visitors will become loyal advocates for an area.

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  • Having spent many years working for retail and communication organisations I decided to set up my own company 6-years ago and launched a global online magazine to showcase luxury and emerging brands – MilliOnAir. 

    Through this medium I have assisted many start up, and young companies, build their on-line presence allowing them to thrive, against challenging market forces.

  • Forming and leading the development of MilliOnAir (on-line) Magazine to its current position. From the outset I championed diversity, culture, eco and sustainability including sponsoring The National Diversity Awards UK. 

    Partnering with a well-known individual to create “Frank” an on-line magazine aimed at women. I built the brand from scratch over a couple of years and helped bring in Frank’s first major sponsorship deal for the publication, as well as creating all the social media and marketing content.

    I am currently a brand ambassador for a few well-known beauty companies and am actively involved in the ongoing success by promoting and evolving their target audience.

    I am active in creating an on-line presence for many talented individuals covering a broad spectrum of fields, from beauty, fashion, and jewellery to artists and the creatives.

  • To promote any product or service you need to understand the brands ethos and the personalities behind it along with knowing who its customer is. Every business is unique and therefore promoting it must be equally unique to reflect its values and the wants of its clients/customers.

  • Fusing the physical with the virtual. It must be about the totality of the entire experience linking retail with leisure and culture.

Pete Bowyer
Public Affairs and Political Communication (Labour)

  • Tax-free shopping system and policy

    Public affairs and government relations – particular focus on the Labour Party

    Campaigning

  • * Co-founder and director of Association of International Retail

    * Senior Director, Weber Shandwick Public Affairs; Executive Director, Apex Communications; Managing Partner, Maitland Political; Partner & Head of Public Affairs, DRD Partnership

    * Political lobbyist for over 25 years, Labour Party Member & Activist for 40 years, Parliamentary Researcher to a Shadow Minister, Labour Party Press Officer, Elected Councillor (LB Lambeth) for 11 years

    * Currently adviser to Keir Starmer’s team on business relations and the Shadow DCMS team on football regulation

Shaeren McKenzie
Strategic Consultant and Communication

  • Vision Setting

    Brand Positioning & Articulation

    Creative Direction and Leadership

    Marketing Strategy

    Communication – Consumer & B2B

    Campaign Building

    Stakeholder Management incl. investment funds & PE

    Consumer Insights

  • * Over 30 Years of delivering Brand Development & Retail Marketing internationally 

    * C Suite Level Leadership in Strategy & Communication at Storehouse, Arcadia, Sara Lee Corporation & McArthurGlen Group

    * Set Up & Led Long Haul Tourism in McArthurGlen Group to drive tax-free shopping

    * Developed strong brand partnerships in luxury sector, launched powerful consumer insight programmes in multiple markets and also for destination-led strategies

Simon Neville
Finance

Esther Worboys
Stakeholder Engagement Market Consultancy

  • Market consultancy (ten years experience of advising local authorities and private landlords on the redevelopment and/or creation of markets, food halls or mixed-use schemes), stakeholder engagement, high street and town centre events and activation

  • Creation of a new container market in Caerphilly town centre, the first project to be delivered as part of the 2035 Caerphilly master plan;

    Expert member of the government's High Street Task Force, working with local authorities to unlock their town centre's potential; successful bidding for Levelling Up fund money for the redevelopment of Ellesmere Port market, now working with the local authority on delivery of the project;

    engagement with occupiers of a number of central London multi-let commercial properties and creation of a programme of events and enlivenment to encourage them back to the office post Covid

  • The most important thing is: understanding what the local community wants, and how to deliver it in a commercially viable way

  • The same as what it's always been - providing somewhere safe, accessible and desirable for people to come and socialise, experience and have fun!

Jim Eccleston
Insights and Market Research Specialist

  • Over 30 years’ experience both client-side and agency-side in delivering consumer and business to business research studies – quantitative and qualitative in nature. Specialises in travel, tourism and destination research – though has experience across a multitude of sectors and approaches from customer experience management to brand and communications evaluation.

  • High Net Worth studies for luxury hotels including The Savoy in London and Cromlix House in Central Scotland.

    Campaign evaluation of ScotRail’s 2023 Brand and Communications campaign.

    Measuring the appeal of British Columbia as a holiday destination for UK residents.

    Westminster Hospitality Industry Research amongst employers, employees and job seekers.

  • To look beyond the research requirements – what are the business objectives, and how can the research provide solutions that will allow the organisation to grow and achieve its ambitions. Delivering research findings without reporting the implications and how the findings can be harnessed is no longer sufficient. 

  • Understanding the ever changing attitudes and behaviours of its stakeholders – consumers, shoppers, workers and the businesses located there.

Kurt Janson
Tourism Policy

  • Tourism Policy and Strategy

    Government Relations

  • Tourism Strategy development for Tourism New Zealand

    Responsible for Policy, Strategy, Campaign Analysis and Business Planning at VisitBritain

    Executive Director of the Tourism Alliance

    Board member of the Tourism Society

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Sarah Clover
Planning and Licensing

  • Barrister for 27 years. An expert in town planning and nationally recognised as one of the leading barristers for the Hospitality and Leisure Industry, for both licensing and planning. Licensing, Planning, Noise Nuisance, Environmental Protection. Accredited Mediator.

  • Founder of NEXSTART – National Exit Strategy Advice and Response Team for the hospitality industry.

    Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Licensing Act 2003 (2016–2018).

    West Midlands Chairman of the Institute of Licensing since 2010.

    Board Member of Night-time Industries Association and Music Venue Trust.

  • Successfully navigating the regulatory labyrinth.

  • The ability to adapt to modern lifestyles and to facilitate competing needs.