Stratford City
The development of Stratford City and the Olympics has the potential to bring enormous opportunities to not only Stratford but potentially to the whole of the Borough. However, Stratford's development as a Metropolitan Centre, will also bring about many challenges and raises many questions, including:

• How will Partners help to deliver this vision and what partnership arrangements are necessary?
• How will we ensure that benefits are accrued locally?
• How will the development of Stratford City be integrated with the existing town centre?
• How will major developments be phased?
• What role do stakeholders think the existing town centre should fulfil and critically how will it achieve this?

Development of the Other Borough's Town Centres
The development of Stratford as a Metropolitan Centre will obviously be a significant draw in East London, which will ultimately have an affect on other town centres across the Borough. However the roles of other town centres will also be influenced by a range of other factors, for example:

• The proposed expansion of retail and leisure offer at Galleons Reach
• The development of Canning Town and of its shopping area
• The possible relocation of the Borough's offices away from East Ham
• The possible declaration of Manor Park as a Housing Renewal Area

As such it will be important to develop a strategic framework for each of these town centres, in order to plan for and manage the change which will inevitably occur. In this way all of the borough's town centres will be in a better position to benefit from the huge opportunities of developments such as the Olympics, whilst also responding to the challenges. The borough will also be in a stronger position to lever in additional funding, for example through the LDA Opportunities fund.

Helping to Improve Service Delivery
As highlighted above the work of TCM has until now been integrally linked with the respective SRB programme and have therefore been very regeneration focussed.

As these area-based regeneration programmes come to an end, it will be important to clarify the future role for TCM, including consideration of the existing Town Centre Management Structures and their relationship with the Community Forums.

An Active Role
To date, the TCM team have played an active role in helping to improve local services but it has the potential to play an even more significant role. For example, the setting up of Business Improvement Districts could be a way forward for the delivery of additional services in town centre areas, which are both agreed and funded by, town centre occupiers.

Further town centre management should also be considered in light of the government's Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy, which places improved local services at its heart.

Only part of the picture
Whilst it is important that TCM helps the borough to deliver its 'cleaner, greener and safer' agenda, it is also crucial to recognise that this is just one key area of TCM work. For example, TCM can play an important role in the development of sites, in promoting economic development etc.

The importance of TCM to improving services is also now recognised by national government. For example this year the Borough has been formally asked by the Audit Commission to submit its Town Centre Strategies, as part of its Comprehensive Performance Assessment.