South Lakeland District Council Performance Sub-Committee 29 April 2015 Town Centres and Small Businesses Portfolio Holder Councillor Giles Archibald

South Lakeland District Council Performance Sub-Committee 29 April 2015

Town Centres and Small Businesses Portfolio Holder Councillor Giles Archibald

Portfolio Summary

The Council Plan objectives as they relate to the Portfolio area of work, and cross-cutting work developed through the Local Plan and Economic Development Strategy.

Working in partnership to ensure thriving and prosperous town centres throughout the District. Providing public realm infrastructure to promote the local economy. Promoting small businesses in both towns and rural areas

Key Areas: • Town Centre Planning, Car Parks and Transportation • Public realm (e.g. parks and open spaces, streetscene) • Planning and Building Control • Markets

Current Issues

Festive Fortnight The Christmas Fortnight provided a series of festive events during 10th – 24th December to showcase Kendal as a major shopping destination. In total 12 events took place over the two week period. It was funded by SLDC, Kendal Town Council and Kendal Business Improvement District (BID). It was a successful partnership-led event.

Empty Shop Figures Empty shop numbers are collected every quarter by the Economy and Assets team at SLDC from Kendal, Ulverston, Kirkby Lonsdale, Ambleside, Windermere, Bowness, Kirkby Lonsdale, Grange and Milnthorpe. The national average for shop vacancy rates currently stands at 13.3% and the north-west average is 18.6%, although in some towns in the region it is as high as 26%. The overall average for South Lakeland is well below both national and North West figures, with the empty shop rate at an average 8.12% for the district.

Our best performing town is Kirkby Lonsdale at 0% figure – which is down from 3.6% in the last quarter - Windermere and Kendal have also shown a decrease this quarter, with Windermere having only four vacant shops and of the 431 shops in Kendal, only 41 are recorded as empty. In Windermere this equates to just a 3.3% vacancy rate, while in Kendal for the third consecutive quarter the figure has shown a fall and is now at 9.5%, the lowest level for six years.

In Ulverston the number of empty shops has increased from 14 to 16 (9.4%) in the same period, while in Ambleside there has also been an increase to 17, up from 14 in the previous quarter, and is now at 10.1%. Bowness has three new empty shops, from 11 to 14, (9.3%) and the number of vacant shops in Grange- over-Sands has gone up from three to five (6.4%). Milnthorpe continues to have the district’s highest empty shop rate at 16.67%. We have key priorities in our Council Plan to help towns and villages to thrive commercially. Through our economic development team and in partnership with organisations like Kendal Futures, the Business Improvement Districts and town and parish councils a great deal of work is going on to stimulate our town centre economies.

Waterhead Project Consultation for Waterhead has now taken place and responses have been collated. A summary analysis report has been discussed at a stakeholder group meeting on 6th March. Plans are being formalised and detailed designs will be worked up to enable the necessary planning applications and tender process to begin. It is anticipated that the improvement works will commence on site late 2015.

Public Realm Enhancements The Environmental Partnership Fund panel recently approved grants totalling £6100 on five community projects; this funding will support public realm improvements in town centres and villages. This will enable a further £16384 of private investment to be injected in to the local economy bringing the total project cost to £22,484. The projects supported were £2500 towards the provision of an Eco Shelter at Kents Bank Railway station enabling conversion of the former shelter to a shop, £2500 to help support a community garden scheme near the Factory Shop in Ulverston, £500 to help install new welcome signs at Sedbergh, £300 to enhance an area of land at the entrance to a main car park in Milnthorpe and £300 towards new signage in Windermere. A new call for projects will be made next month. Volunteer Pilot The three groups in the volunteer pilot have continued to go from strength to strength:

Friends of Lightburn Park hold regular gardening days with local groups maintaining the park and planting new bulbs, over £1,500 funding has been obtained for new plants. They are applying for funding from Awards For All to commission Groundwork North East and Cumbria to develop a master plan for the park.

Millerground Enhancement Group hold a regular work afternoon where school children and volunteers work alongside National Trust Rangers to cut back undergrowth and saplings. The group have been successful with several funding bids including £5,000 from Locally Important Projects for arboriculture works and £1,000 from Nurture Lakeland for seating.

Nobles Rest held an extensive consultation programme to obtain views on proposed works and recruit interested people to join a friends group. The first Friends meeting was held in the beginning of February where it was agreed to form a constituted group and to hold three work days during 2015.

Peoples Millions The Millerground Enhancement Group were finalists in the ITV Peoples Millions Lottery Grant scheme, a two minute film was made about the project which successfully demonstrated all the different partners and elements of the project, this culminated in a campaign on the day our film was shown on TV to get votes. Unfortunately the project wasn't successful, but the campaign has raised awareness of the project in Windermere, resulting in some new volunteers and the national company Glasdon has shown an interested in getting involved.

Hallgarth Children's Playground Consultation has taken place for the new children's playground on the Hallgarth Recreation Ground, £55,000 funding has been raised by Hallgarth Community Centre Association and SLDC is to redevelop the playground. It is planned that the new playground will be open for the summer holidays.

Major Tree works have taken place at Kendal Parish Church in consultation with the local community and stakeholders, to remove overgrown yew trees at the side of The Ring O’ Bells which have been replaced with more suitable slow growing and easy to maintain trees.

Play Audit An audit of all 66 children's playgrounds will take place this summer, the audit will establish the age and condition of the playgrounds, who they cater for, where there is over provision and where there may be an under provision. Recommendations will be given for playgrounds to improve and redevelop, relocate or possibly merge or close.

Explore South Lakeland The total number of visits to the ExploreSouthLakeland.com website nearly trebled in 2014, rising to 154,816 from 54,906 in 2013. This was an average of 12,901 views each month, with a total of 83,105 unique visitors. There was a gradual upward trend in visitor numbers over the year, with a peak in the summer months. In 2015 this trend has continued, with 33,424 visits so far for January and February. Explore South Lakeland now has a social media audience of 1,701 on Twitter and Facebook.

Ulverston BID The Ulverston BID project is progressing well. The Ulverston BID Steering Group consists of local business rate payers and officers from the Economic Development Team. The Council has worked very closely with the BID co-ordinator in the run up to the ballot. The Council has also recently considered the proposed Business Improvement District (BID) in Ulverston, and agreed to manage the Ulverston BID ballot process and act as the billing authority in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote, which it was following the ballot on 26th March.

Market Place A joint task force with Kendal Town Council, SLDC, Kendal Futures, CCC and the Chamber of Commerce, is developing plans for a major upgrade in the Market Place. A pedestrian survey has already been completed and an action plan produced.

Community Plans in town centre Work has begun on identifying town centre related projects within Community Led Plans and Neighbourhood Plans as logged by the Policy & Partnerships team. The log includes the current status of the plan e.g. expression of interest, underway, completed and any economic activity.

Ulverston Market The Town Centres Project Officer has met with the Ulverston Town Clerk to look at new options for enhancing the Saturday market. Work is ongoing with potential external operators to uplift the Saturday market particularly in summer when the footfall will be greater due to visitors.

Business Events South Lakeland District Council held a free Business and Networking Event on Wednesday 11th March at The Belsfield Hotel, Bowness-on-Windermere. The theme was Retail. Speakers covered promoting your business and, in particular, window dressing to entice customers into retailers' shops. There were speakers on changing High Street (how retailers can sell on-line and direct to larger companies like Amazon) and an opportunity to ask questions followed by more networking with a light lunch. Fifty businesses attended.

Looking Forward

Pedestrian Audit in Milnthorpe SLDC have contracted a consultant to undertake a pedestrian audit by the end of March. The Economic Development team will contact local people and groups to take part in the audit once a date is finalised for the audits to take place. Two key areas have been identified to hold the audits as the main crossroads on the A6 and the market square.

Kendal KEGAP The Kendal Economic Growth Action Plan (KEGAP) 2015 – 2025 was launched at Kendal College on 11 March. The Council is a key partner in Kendal Futures, the economic partnership for the town. The KEGAP includes priorities and projects that will grow the local economy, fuel job creation and increase the wider Kendal area's long-term prosperity. It focuses on the drivers of business growth and job creation based on innovation, investment, infrastructure and skills. It is consistent with the Kendal Town Council Action Plan.

Economic survey overview (Windermere & Bowness) An outline proposal is being worked on for an economic study to be completed in Windermere & Bowness, in conjunction with local partners including the Lake District National Park Authority.

Town Centre Wi-Fi The Kendal scheme has become operational during March. The pilot scheme will be closely monitored and will likely be rolled out to other towns across South Lakeland. It will be funded through growth monies.

Playgrounds Community groups and local councillors from Oxenholme and Sandylands are working with the Parks and Open Spaces Team to raise funds to redevelop their playgrounds.

The Arboriculture Framework will be refined and developed during 2015, the roles of Arboriculture Officer in planning and Parks and Open Spaces will be placed on the chest as one full time position, following this the Contractor Framework will be advertised with a more detailed specification of works required, with the aim of reducing the time it takes for works to be completed and for more contractors to be placed on the framework.

Sponsorship of floral displays will be explored to ensure the provision of good quality horticultural displays, from initial discussions there has been some interest.

Mowing regimes across the district have been reviewed for two reasons, to increase biodiversity through longer grass and wild flowers and also to release resources to work in other areas of the grounds contract.

Ferry Nab development Planning permission has been granted for the new marina at Ferry Nab. Permission is pending for the extension to Ferry Nab’s offices and to change the use of the existing toilet block to retail. A decision is expected in May 2015. Work to construct the new marina is scheduled to be complete mid April 2015. The marina will be open for business from 1 April 2015. Car Parking We are introducing a new early bird tariff in the Westmorland Shopping Centre multi-storey for those who arrive between 7am and 9am. It will be £2.20 all day starting April 2015 on a six month trial. Reduced annual car park permits will be introduced for Milnthorpe car parks at a cost of £200.00.

A combined bus and parking ticket £18.00 park and explore trial from Braithwaite Fold car park Bowness and Lowfold Ambleside will run as a trial from April through to 1st November. This initiative is in partnership with the Lake District National Park Authority and Stagecoach.

Electric Vehicle charging points progressing well with Cumbria County Council. Firm agreement should be in place by April 15 for charging devices to be installed on car parks in Kendal, Ambleside, Kirkby Lonsdale and Ulverston. Kirkby Lonsdale transfer of Booths car parks progressing.

Officers will be commissioning a review of our car parking strategy in the new financial year.

Planning Performance

Target Qtr 3 Qtr 4 to 28 Feb Year to 28 Feb Majors 60% 82% 100% 88% Minors 65% 78% 72% 73% Others 80% 85% 77% * 84% *Abnormal staff sickness in January affected performance.