PORTAS REVIEW PILOTS APPLICATION FORM
Please ensure you fill in ALL sections of this form.
Guidance on completing this form can be found at www.communities.gov.uk/publications/regeneration/portaspilotsprospectus
SECTION ONE Organisational details
The Department will only consider applications from either local partnerships or a consortium with a single lead bidder. This is to ensure clear lines of accountability and communication.
1.1 Organisation name Stockport Town Centre Business & Retail Forum (in whose name C/o Stockport Council the application is being made – if a partnership/cons ortium/BID, state the lead) 1.2 Contact Graeme Vout Town & District Centres Manager name and main role 1.3 Address Stockport Council Stopford House Piccadilly Stockport SK1 3XE
1.4 Telephone (a) 0161 480 4949 (b) 0161 474 4562 number /07800 618096 (a) organisation (b) contact 1.5 Email [email protected] address of contact 1.6 Website http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/business/regendevelopment/ address (if any) regeneration/towncentremanagement/
SECTION TWO Town Team/Partnership
2.1 Who will lead the pilot? Stockport Town Centre Business & Retail Forum C/o Stockport Council
2.2 Who will be the Accountable Body (Please attach a confirmation letter)? Stockport Council
2.3 Please indicate the other partners involved in your application.
Please add further rows if required Organisation name Organisation address and contact Main activities and details role Greater Manchester Christian Mancier, Support to companies Chamber of Stockport President of all shapes and sizes Commerce (Stockport, C/o Churchgate House through a range of Tameside & Trafford) 56 Oxford Street sector-based Manchester membership services M60 7HJ and networking www.gmchamber.co.uk opportunities. 0161 236 3210 Stockport Plaza Super Ted, Doan, General Manager The borough’s main Cinema & Variety Mersey Square Town Centre, Stockport performing arts venue Theatre SK1 1SP www.stockportplaza.co.uk 0161 480 3818 Screen Stockport John Barratt, Screen Stockport Screen Stockport is an Merchant House, Market Place independent short Stockport, SK1 1EU film and television [email protected] festival team that aims 0161 612 8878 / 07733 320842 to bring together Twitter: @screenstockport filmmakers of all ages, www.screenstockport.co.uk regardless of background and experience. Manchester Jane McKeating, Director of Studies, Manchester School of Metropolitan Faculty of Art & Design, Art is one of the University Manchester Metropolitan University, largest providers of art All Saints Building, All Saints, and design courses in Manchester, M15 6BH the UK. www.mmu.ac.uk 0161 247 1705 Vintage Village Sarah Norris The Vintage Village at and Room at the Top Stockport Covered Market Hall Stockport Market Hall
Vintage Goods Market Place is currently held on Stockport second Sunday of SK1 1EU every month. www.vintagevillagestockportmarket.co.uk Room at the Top Vintage Goods is an authentic vintage market located in the Victorian Produce Hall overlooking Stockport Market Place.
National Market Stockport Branch NMTF, c/o John O’Mara, Local Market traders Traders Federation Stockport Branch President, Market Place, representatives Stockport. The provision of 01226 749021 support and advice on www.nmtf.co.uk markets and market trading. Merseyway Shopping Brendan Webb Shopping Centre Manager Overall management Centre 52-54 Great Underbank Stockport SK1 of the shopping centre 1PD 0161 480 2839 www.merseyway.com Stockport College Debbie Fennell Commercial Director Provide a wide range Stockport College, Town Centre Campus, of academic and Wellington Road South, Stockport SK1 vocational courses 3UQ. from pre GCSE to Tel. 0161 958 3100 Fax. 0161 480 6636 degree level. [email protected] www.stockport.ac.uk Greater Manchester Leon Jacobs, Chief Inspector Key agency on the Police Stockport Neighbourhoods and Criminal Justice crime & disorder Division Stockport Division reduction partnership. Greater Manchester Police Tel no 0161 856 9756 www.gmp.police.uk Stockport Council Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive The provider of a wide Town Hall, Edward Street Stockport SK1 range of local services 3XE and support to the www.stockport.gov.uk borough of Stockport 0161 474 3000
2.4 Please explain how you will ensure information about the use of the grant, decisions made, and outcome of the projects, is made publicly available (maximum 300 words).
The new Stockport Town Team will be responsible for informing all partners and public about the use of the grant, decisions made and ensuring the outcomes in this application are delivered.
The Town Team will be a transparent and accountable group. It will have its own web site and social media accounts as the principal tools for communications. It will also make use of public events, print and broadcast media locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to communicate with partners and the public.
The Town Team will make full use of the town centre itself to publicise its progress on key projects. Venues like The Markets, Merseyway Shopping Centre, Stockport Plaza, the Railway Station and key retail areas will all give over space for information and events, telling the public about the use of the grant and the wider programme.
The Town Team will also use our iconic locations and our ambassadors including international athletes and entertainers to launch and celebrate projects and events.
We will share best practice through the ATCM and proposed CLG evaluation, with Greater Manchester partners and other Town Teams.
Local newspapers and radio stations are fully supportive of efforts to attract more business to the town centre, and have already started their own campaigns. Stockport and the town centre has also featured extensively in national tabloid, broadsheet and broadcast coverage in recent months, and we intend to build on those established contacts to maximise future positive coverage.
2.5 Please explain how you will monitor and evaluate the impact of the grant (maximum 300 words).
Our aim will be to find out what people feel about spending time (and money) in Stockport town centre, and to evaluate the outcomes for local businesses. We want to create a buzz, and this will involve perceptions as well as qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Monitoring will be based on a range of indicators and discrete measures designed specifically for the pilot projects. These include evaluating:
The diversity of uses Retailer representation (number, type, independents & multiples) The level of interest from new retailers and retailers wishing to change their representation Number of lettings Vacancy levels Changes from retail to non retail Commercial yields Footfall Customer and residents’ views, feedback and behaviour through online
consultation, social media and mystery shopping Perception of safety and occurrence of crime State of the town centre environmental quality (including buildings and spaces) Car park usage Participants involved in specific grant aided projects (number, level of involvement, experience. This will include evaluating audience figures and profiles at both the the Plaza Super Cinema & Theatre and Seven Miles High arts centre) Event evaluation (including attendance figures, visitor profiles, reasons for attending, perceptions of and actual experience of the centre) New business start ups Number of improved facilities & premises Media coverage
A range of new and traditional methods and techniques will be employed to capture, collate and evaluate the results from these measures including face to face interviews, questionnaires, observation and statistical analysis software.
The impact of the grant will be closely monitored through a range of measures. This will enable the Town Team to assess and review progress on an ongoing basis over the lifetime of the grant aided projects and initiatives and help us respond quickly to impromptu opportunities and changing circumstances where they arise or where they might add unexpected value.
SECTION THREE
Criterion One: Mix
Please tick all boxes relevant to your application
TOWN/AREA NAME: Local Authority (name): Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council Location Type Market Town New Town Rural Town Coastal Town Village Large Town Suburban Parade Other Where the following information is easily accessible: Income (detail can be found on ONS website: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/search/index.html?newquery=employed+earnings) High employed earnings Low employed earnings
SECTION FOUR
Criterion Two: Strong Leadership
4.1 Please detail your vision for your high street, and describe how you have begun to secure local support and how you will build on this to make it a reality (maximum 300 words).
Through a wide range of meetings, discussions with businesses and residents, and communications via email, Twitter and the local media, we have built strong support, clear consensus and a real sense of excitement that the area with most potential to become again the heart of the town is the historic Markets & Underbanks area (this diversity of support is strongly expressed in our video). This area is home to our most distinctive buildings, our most beautiful spaces, and our key cultural attractions. Much money has been spent on the physical renewal of this area, yet its potential remains unrealised.
Our vision is for the contemporary reinvention of these unique places and spaces, built around dynamic, community led organisations and entrepreneurs, creating environments and experiences which attract people by both day and night. This vision builds on our historic market, growing independent retail sector, developing creative businesses, emerging events programme, outstanding record in business start ups, and the strong commitment of community organisations. This is where we wish to focus our Portas Pilot.
Stockport’s Town Centre Business & Retail Forum already brings together the main retailers and businesses in the town centre. We will transform this into a Town Team, formally constituted with representatives from businesses, independent and multiple retailers, market traders, cultural organisations, residents and the voluntary sector, reflecting the geography and demographics of the town centre. The Town Team will commission the main town centre services and standards from service providers (including the Council) and be responsible for overseeing the day to day running of the town centre.
The Team will have the resources, the powers and the responsibility to take the town centre’s exceptional assets, coupled with the enthusiasm and passion of many committed people, to make this unique location bring benefit to the whole of the town.
SECTION FIVE
Criterion Three: Commitment
5.1 Please attach any supporting letters (from those organisations and individuals who make up your pilot), detail of proposed match funding, and any other relevant information, including detail of the percentage of landlords and businesses signed up to the pilot (maximum 300 words).
The town centre is the top regeneration priority for Stockport Council. The Council has committed over £30million to drive forward our overall vision and we are progressing with a new business district on site (Grand Central), leisure offer under development (Bridgefield) and new residential areas being delivered creating at least 300 new homes in the town centre.
All Council political group leaders have committed their support for this bid. Through the Town Centre Business & Retail Forum, Town Centre Management Network, Merseyway Centre Management, National Market Traders Federation and Stockport Chamber of Commerce and many more, we have active and growing practical commitment to working together to improve the town centre. Through the process of this bid development, we have built a much wider network of interest, inspiration, support and commitment. Our decision to submit a Portas Pilot bid has received an overwhelmingly positive response; from retailers, non-retail businesses, voluntary organisations and key local agencies such as the police. Over 180 individual town centre businesses, retailers, groups and agencies representing over 46.5% of the centre have already agreed to support the bid proposals including a number of key influential landlords. (Please refer to attachments).
As a measure of commitment, the Council has agreed to match fund any cash provided for a Portas Pilot up to £100,000, and to merge the events budget with the Portas programme. This is on top of funding and in kind support which the Council is already providing including property facelift grants, premises to develop creative industries and art graduate business incubation in the market place, and signposting. This is set out in more detail at Section 8 Expenditure.
Other organisations and individual business people, including Screen Stockport, Manchester Metropolitan University and prominent local businesses are committing in kind resources towards the projects within the bid.
SECTION SIX
Criterion Four: Potential for improvement
We will be awarding funding on a value for money basis. It is important, therefore, that your bid can demonstrate the potential for improvement in your area.
6.1 Please set out what you consider to be the key challenges facing your high street (including current vacancy rates) and why your high street has the potential to improve (maximum 300 words).
Stockport town centre recently hit the national press with the highest vacancies of any large town in the country (over 30%). Vacancies particularly focus on the Markets & Underbanks area (25-50%). Our challenges include:
filling vacant units with exciting new uses;
support the businesses who have recently “discovered” the Markets & Underbanks area;
reinvent our Markets and key attractions to attract people from 90-minute drivetime across Greater Manchester and Cheshire;
create venues owned and run by young people, building on the Teenage Market success;
bring the centre to life in the evenings as well as daytime.
The potential to improve is emerging. Strategic investment in major town centre developments is underway. Footfall has increased steadily within Merseyway shopping centre, driven by the opening of Primark and an award winning rebrand. Stockport recently achieved the highest increase in business start ups in the UK. The borough has an affluent culturally active population which too often looks elsewhere for entertainment and shopping.
The Markets & Underbanks shows real potential, building on capital investment and entrepreneurialism. Recently restored, they compare architecturally to Chester or York and are regarded as Stockport’s hidden gem by local people with a passion for and commitment to this unique area:
the growing number of specialist shops and monthly Vintage Village market http://www.vintagevillagestockportmarket.co.uk/home with national media coverage, attracting visitors from across the UK;
new creative businesses including Screen Stockport http://screenstockport.co.uk/ and the commitment by Manchester Metropolitan University to create art graduate business incubation;
the award winning restoration and audience development of the Plaza Theatre http://www.stockportplaza.co.uk/
Yet Stockport remains a “risky” location for some, so the economics of business survival are fragile. The boost of being a Portas pilot will be a much needed catalyst for key projects to survive and thrive.
SECTION SEVEN
Criterion Five: Innovation
7.1 Please set out how you will test the Town Team approach, what your priorities are likely to be, and whether there are particular recommendations in the Portas Review you want to test. We are particularly looking for innovative ideas (maximum 300 words).
We will test the approach by setting up Stockport Town Team to be responsible for the key programmes and projects which matter to the town centre as a whole. This will include responsibility for:
a new strategy for car parking charges and payment;
agreeing cleanliness and security standards;
securing new market operators to realises the full potential of the market;
harnessing the discretion in the business rates system to incentivise occupation of vacant units;
building on our award winning programme to dress vacant units by the creative community;
improved signage and marketing for visitor attractions and businesses;
ensuring outstanding digital connectivity;
setting up a network of street champions to ensure standards on a street by street basis are specified and sustained.
This will involve the radical transfer of powers and budgets from the statutory sector to the private and voluntary sectors – the consumers of town centre services. This process has the highest level of political support within the Council and other service providers.
We will test selected recommendations of the Portas Review (numbers below refer to recommendations) to develop the specialist retail sectors, galvanise the creative industries, unlock the potential of our cultural organisations, and re-invent distinctive traditions for the 21st century.
Our priorities are to:
encourage the growth of specialist retail (10, 19, 27)
enhance the programming offer for Stockport Plaza and our Museums (10)
by September 2012 open a creative arts complex (‘Seven Miles Out’) with a particular focus on young people (possibly linked to the Government’s Youth
Innovation Zone) (10, 27)
procure new spaces for creative industries through use of empty units and rates incentives (7, 19, 27)
create events which animate Stockport’s unique places and spaces eg Stockport Brows Runs, outdoor screenings in St Peter’s Square, and the Stocktoberfest, building on our real ale excellence (10)
SECTION EIGHT
Expenditure
8.1 Please set out how you much you are bidding for, (maximum £100,000), and how you propose to use it. Please explain how the pilot will be innovative and deliver additional impact. Please also provide detail of other Government funding your partnership currently receives (maximum 300 words).
We will spend the £100,000 we are bidding for as follows (we currently receive no Government funding), including the Council’s match funding, in order to achieve additional impact:
£000 Projects Portas Match Match Total funding revenue & capital in kind
Plaza: digital equipment 20 20 Cultural programme development 20 30 50 Plaza/St Peter’s Square: big screen 20 20 Seven Miles Out centre 50 50 Events programme 60 100 160 Support for vintage/specialist retail 20 20 Creative industry development space 42 10 52 Signage, legibility and e presence 90 90 Total 100 172 190 462
These projects will ensure that the potential of individual organisations works for the benefit of the wider town centre. So in the case of:
the Plaza, we are building on the £3 million building restoration and the army of volunteers who run it, to provide new digital equipment which will enhance the Plaza’s programme and attract audiences from across the North West;
the Hatworks, the story of one of our greatest industries, will showcase the re- invention of the millinery tradition and new interest in contemporary fashion;
The creation of Seven Miles Out will build on the success of the Screen Stockport Festival, and provide a hub for creative activity, particularly focussing on attracting young people;
A new events programme will attract audiences to explore the town’s unique architecture and topography as both participants and spectators;
The Vintage Village attracts visitors from across the UK and has developed the Room at the Top vintage centre. Additional support will encourage vintage/other specialist retailers to the area;
Manchester Metropolitan University are setting up art graduate business incubation within 18-19 Market Place; Stockport College wish to progress a similar facility; funding for additional units will accelerate this development.
(293 words)
VIDEO SUBMISSION
Please upload your video to YouTube (www.youtube.com).
If you do not already have an account you will need to go to the website and use the “Create Account” option.
Please include the URL (link) below. You should not include the video itself with your application.
Video link: http://youtu.be/8DR0L_Azd9c
ATTACHMENTS
Supporting Documents
Town Centre Development Prospectus http://www.stockport.gov.uk/2013/2978/8803/12246/tcguidance/stcdevprospe ctus
Economic Development Strategy http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/business/regendevelopment/stockportec onomicalliance2/economicdevelopmentstrategy
Stockport LDF Core Strategy DPD http://www.stockport.gov.uk/2013/2994/developmentcontrol/planningpolicy/LD F/ldfcorestrategydpd http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/environment/planningbuilding/planningp olicy/ldf/corestrategy/ http://www.stockport.gov.uk/2013/2994/developmentcontrol/planningpolicy/LD F/udppoliciesthatstillapply
Support
Over 180 individual town centre businesses, retailers, groups and agencies representing over 46.5% of the centre have already agreed to support the Town Centre bid proposals including a number of key influential landlords. Formal letters of support representing a number of these accompany this submission.