Event Review Town Centre Renewal: The Continuing Role of Retail Date: Wednesday June 11th 2014 Location: The Racecourse Football Ground, Wrexham On the 11th June 2014, CREW Regeneration Wales organised a conference entitled ‘Town Centre Renewal: The Continuing Role of Retail’ which was held at the Racecourse Football Ground in Wrexham North Wales.The event was well attended, and attracted delegates from a wide range of professional backgrounds linked to regeneration including representatives from the public, private and academic sectors. The conference was chaired by Alan Brown (Board Member of CREW Regeneration Wales and Director of Alan Brown Associates.) The conference began with Mark Charlton and Andy Delaney who discussed the findings of the Distressed Towns Centres Property Taskforce report ‘Beyond Retail: Redefining the shape and purpose of town centres’. The full report can be downloaded at the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSE) website: (http://policy.bcsc.org.uk/beyondretail/index.asp) A copy of the presentation given at the conference can be downloaded here: The second speaker was Tom Foulkes from Peter Brett Partnership, and the presentation focused on employing Town Centre Investment Management (TCIM) as a way of tackling the problematic and deep rooted issue of fragmented ownership of land and buildings in town and city centres where regeneration is required. In this regard, practitioner experience and academic study would suggest that a spatial re-arrangement of land uses is frequently required to facilitate comprehensive regeneration of discrete locations. The issues and findings of TCIM can be found in the report published by Peter Brett, which can be downloaded here: http://towncentreinvestment.com/. There then followed a question and answer session. The discussions focused on TCIM and considered as to how this method of facilitating comprehensive regeneration in town and city centres could be rolled out across the UK. Following the initial report by Peter Brett Associates, they are now looking for willing towns to participate in a pilot project. The late morning/early lunch time session started with a talk by Isobel Garner, Town Centre Manager for Wrexham, and Kevin Critchley, Manager of Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre. Kevin gave a very useful historical context to retail in Wrexham, and the development of Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre. Isobel then followed with an explanation of where Wrexham sits in a geographical context, and its position within the retail hierarchy of North Wales and Cheshire. The notes below, kindly put together by Isobel Garner and Kevin Critchley capture the main points of the talk. Kevin Critchley, Eagles Meadow Centre Manager Historical Context Wrexham viewed as a ‘traditional’ market town to serve the needs of the town and its immediate surroundings. It has, in fact, become a regional centre as the largest town in Wales. In 2006 Wrexham was 181st in the retail ranking – surprised it was on the list at all in many ways. By 2013, ranking had improved to 90th following developments at Henblas Square (BHs and TJ Hughes), Island Green (TKMaxx, Brantano), Plas Coch (Sainsburys and Homebase), Central Retail Park (Dunelm Mill) and of course Eagles Meadow (Debenhams, M & S, Ten Pin, Odeon). Retail development had been accompanied by other improvements such as a new bus station, Central Railway Station and the modernisation of the Racecourse Football Ground. The downside of the retail development is that none of the investment was concentrated within the traditional high street, but was on the edge of town, or on the site of a car park and ASDA. Retail properties within the traditional shopping streets have the traditional problems of multi-ownership, difficult servicing access and in some cases the major problem of asbestos containing materials. Unit sizes are limited and too small for modern requirements. There has been an overall net gain in retail provision following considerable investment along with an increase in employment opportunities in Wrexham town centre. Isobel Garner, Town Centre Manager Geographical Context Wrexham has a population of 43,000 (town centre). It is uniquely positioned in the UK compared to other towns of similar size which are typically situated within a very short distance of larger urban conurbations that restrict their growth and the type of business that may locate there. Burton on Trent (pop 43,000) twenty minutes from Derby (pop 248,700) and close to Leicester and Nottingham. Chester, Wrexham’s nearest rival, is twenty minutes away and has a population of 90,544. The catchment extends beyond the usual drive time because of this geographical location. A 35 – 45 minute drive-time, especially to the south and south west. This gives Wrexham a greater market share. According to CACI, Wrexham is a major centre. Most leakage is predictably to Chester city centre but Wrexham’s retention of leakage has increased since Eagles Meadow was built. Eagles Meadow has meant that we retained shops through the recession that otherwise would have left Wrexham, including M & S and the Arcadia Group and attracted new shops to the town centre. Customer profile – one third (approx.) Struggling Families (Caia Park and Hightown) One third Secure Families – south, town centre and to the North West. One third – wealthy executives – mostly to the north and north east of the town centre. Our role is to attract the people from the two-thirds more affluent places to the town centre and to create a place where people aspire to do more. The independent sector is thriving with seven butchers in the town centre – at a time when places that are similar are losing them – Loughborough has one butcher now, in a secondary location rather than primary retail as in Wrexham. There are four florists – all independent. There are some high level independent retailers selling bespoke jewellery and designer label clothes that are not available within an agreed radius and therefore attract visitors to the town centre. Working with Destination Management, a Task and Finish group with elected Members has been set up to consider how the elements of the town centre that are currently managed by different departments with different (and carefully preserved) budgets could be managed more effectively for the visitor experience. Kevin Critchley Wrexham/Wales/UK –‘we are not alone’ Everywhere – every village, town and city centre in the UK – is competing with retail and leisure developments on the edge of and especially outside of ‘town centre’. Regional shopping centres, factory outlets, leisure developments (ski slopes etc) and Designer Outlets are all attracting customers away from town centres and transplanting the customer away from traditional locations. Mass car ownership has made it so that ‘easy’ has become King (or Queen?) and very few town centres are easy compared to out of town. Internet retailing affects everywhere and yes, there is opportunity for click and collect stores in void units but that is not the answer to problems faced by bricks and mortar shops. Everywhere ‘in town’ also faces the same playing field where we are kicking uphill against the wind in the first half, and then kicking uphill against the wind in the second half – it is not a level playing field! Just say no to out of town developments – that is all that is required! Isobel Garner What is Wrexham doing about it? Retail is still important to Wrexham as it is the largest town in Wales. However we have too much retail floor space and need to consider how we shrink and change this. Vibrant Viable Places funding – a successful bid. Nine projects – some of the projects about town centre living and housing accommodation and through that changing the dynamic of the town centre. With people returning to the town centre after being out at work rather than people leaving the town centre, the change in how the town operates is that there is a need for convenience (small scale) and for restaurants – both areas where Wrexham has a shortfall in current offer. Masterplanning for the town centre – being done in-house rather than paying for external expertise – we know our town and we can talk to our property owners etc. The VVP money will pay for some market testing and ensuring that the masterplan is robust. The masterplan will then inform the LDP. Looking at our key gateways and sites that are strategically important and talking to partners about end use and the gaps in provision in the County Borough such as extra care facilities. Most exciting of all is the support from the Arts Council of Wales in addition to VVP that means that we are commencing the study into the provision of a cultural hub in the town centre. With a very strong music industry (but not as yet as public facing as we wish to grow it), the town already has the arts happening. Equally with strong visual arts (but again not as public facing as we wish to grow it) we have a Print Biennial and have changed the arts festival and now have Creative International that is growing in strength over the years. We want to create somewhere that will attract different audiences to the arts – following the very successful Un Deg Un in the town centre. We want to create somewhere that can support aspiration amongst our local population, that can retain our student population and that can attract new audiences. Following successful work with Betsi Cadwalader, our local health board, we want to provide quality of life for people in health care and we want to attract new and different people to the arts in the town centre. However, retail is also part of this – having said we want to reduce the amount of retail in the town centre; there is room for niche retail within what we want to create in the town.