JIM PARKER: Breathing life into our town centres
COMET, Jessops, HMV and now Blockbuster — when will all this so-called blood on the High Street end? The DVD rental chain was the latest to hit financial trouble when it went into administration last week.
Attempts are being made to save some stores and Blockbuster outlets in Torquay, Paignton and Newton Abbot have so far survived. But for how long as thousands of people continue to be forced into the dole queues in just a couple of months.
What are the powers-that-be doing in Torbay to try to halt, or least slow down, this misery as more and more people carry out their shopping by clicking a mouse or by flocking to out-of-town shopping malls and superstores where access is easy and parking meters, charges and wardens are nowhere to be seen?
Evidently, there is a little 'task force' working away in the background to come up with some solutions, but one councillor, who is a member, reckons our town centres will never be the same.
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Tory Alan Tyerman sits on the cross-party task force with deputy mayor David Thomas and fellow councillors Alan Faulkner and Mike Morey.
Cllr Tyerman, who is also a director of the Torbay Development Agency, says the group was formed between six and nine months ago and focuses on regeneration possibilities with potential developers.
Mayor Gordon Oliver usually looks after redevelopment opportunities, but he is staying in the background at the moment because of the project currently being worked on by the task force — namely a possible supermarket redevelopment on the site of the current town hall car park in Lymington Road, Torquay.
Cllr Tyerman says: "The town hall development is the main project we are dealing with at the moment.
"We and the Torbay Development Agency have met with the developers. Gordon Oliver is a little concerned about a possible conflict of interest because he owns some town centre properties. He feels this would be the best way to look at it."
So how does Cllr Tyerman see the town centre shaping up as he seeks a way of rejuvenating and rescuing it?
"It is a difficult one. This is not just a Torbay problem. It is a national problem," says Cllr Tyerman.
"I find it very difficult to see how the town centre can survive in its current format.
"At the end of the day we are going to have to accept that we are going to need a lot fewer shop units.
"My children hardly went out for their Christmas shopping. It was done on line.
"Over the next two or three decades you can see on-line shopping dominating. This generation will not return to the shops when they reach 50."
He said to avoid empty spaces dominating the retail landscape, some of the High Street will have to be turned into residential accommodation.
He said there may be some resistance from shopkeepers who would want to survive as individual businesses.
Part of the challenge is how you mix flats and shops virtually in the same location. Or do you actually shrink the town centre and set aside some of it for residential only?
The future of Torquay town centre has been in the spotlight recently as its master plan for the next 20 years is drawn up under the Torquay Neighbourhood Plan.
Susie Colley, chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Forum, and her team of volunteers have spent endless hours staging public meetings before drawing up a report to get a feedback from residents. She was not over-enthused with the initial response.
She revealed over 10,000 leaflets had been distributed, but only 192 responses had come back in.
"I am truly taken aback that the residents of Torquay clearly do not give a flying jot what happens to their town," was her first reaction.
"Maybe the message has to be reinforced that folk are happy with the cemeteries being built on in the future and blocks of flats either side of the war memorial?"
But then she warmed after a good turn-out at a subsequent meeting and a positive feedback from the Prince's Foundation after they reviewed the planning blueprint.
Susie says: "There were 60 people there. I was very encouraged. Everybody was encouraged by the Prince's Foundation report."
In fact, the foundation has told the community campaigners to be 'bolder' with their regeneration plans.
Susie says: "They are saying make things clearer — make it obvious Torre Station is on the way to the seafront. Move the station further up the line and have the traffic coming straight down into town and straight through Torre."
Yep, big, bold moves and a blank sheet of paper are what we need to breathe new life into our town centres and shopping areas before the life support machine is switched off.
It looks as if council officers are putting great emphasis on the town hall plan.
They were keen to protect the potential development and that's why they wanted the Morrisons store plan for Babbacombe turned down as it was seen as a threat, but is that being 'big and bold?' What about the jobs it would have created?
Then we have the Tesco mess in Brixham where the town council has thrown out a £20million store plan which would have also provided work for many more.
It just seems that as soon as the door is gently opened to a developer it is then firmly slammed in their face.
As Susie Colley says: "Why does everybody say 'you cannot do it'"
If we are not careful we will be left with a 'will the last one out please switch off the light' scenario. Time is not on our side.
9 Comments
by Dave_David
Friday, January 25 2013, 12:47AM
“Sidneynuff....never mentioned your name did I ....if the cap fits wear it....constant name changer from many parts of Europe and Scotland. Very repetitive remarks from you, South African Township is what you called Torquay last summer, Leonard Stocks and drugs and thief's, dossers and generally in the summer bull terriers are let loose on Abbey Sands whilst their owners get drunk on the beach when the tide is in....what rubbish. How is your hotel in the town centre doing....good bit of fiction that.
How do manage to be everywhere in your busy life on the dole.”
by SidneyNuff
Thursday, January 24 2013, 10:01PM
“David seems confused and bitter tonight. No change there then.”
by Dave_David
Thursday, January 24 2013, 8:18PM
“realityzone.....for once I agree with you in all you say.
I had the pleasure of going into the town centre today, what a disgrace it is, I went to WH Smith, parked at the court house, walked down through Union Street bought the magazines I wanted from Smiths and walked back up, there were very few people in the town and parking was easy. What struck me was how few cars there were, teenagers and young Mums with their cigarettes in one one hand and their mobile phones in the other pushing, their prams. The majority of people looked like zombies, one shop, a 'cheap jack' place opposite to Primark, was blasting out music from an out of date tape deck. It was awful.
As for Jim Parker the sooner he loses his job the better, as the editor of this highly thought of news-rag, his editorship is going from bad to worse, at least this week he did not mention any of his family to fill his column, instead he used Susie Colley. How come the ex-mayor who was voted out still has a column in the the paper, though Bye had got his job back as a bingo caller.
How come that person that has posts removed from these pages, under different names, is still active under a different name, her posts are still repetitive and she still repeats the in every post about the dossers and druggies in Torquay, she now says she lives in Torquay town centre, where is there living accommodation apart from the old GPO.
Gordon Oliver, my least favourite person, has property interests in Torquay town centre.
I returned to my car 20 minutes after my parking ticket ran out, did not get the usual fine from the parking person, perhaps that was because he was still drinking his tea in cafe in Union Street.
I swear that I will never shop in Torquay town again.
The Willows, Newton Abbot or Exeter for me.”
by SidneyNuff
Thursday, January 24 2013, 5:15PM
“Look at this weeks around the courts anf see how many times NFA (some Torquay city centre hostel) and Factory Row appear. This is the experience you get shopping in Torquay.”
by realityzone
Thursday, January 24 2013, 2:32PM
“Several points here:-
1. Eponymice is, again, quite right.
2. Retailers, both local and national chains, have consistently underestimated the impact that internet shopping is having on conventional retailing and are now paying the price.
3. Jim Parker in his ignorance does not grasp that there are limits on what the Local Authority can do given the impact of national trends.
4 . What the H*** does Suzy Colley mean by saying " and blocks of flats either side of the war memorial?" Surely that nonsense was ended when we threw out Nick Bye with his " Vision", although Jim Parker is working hard to try and bring him back!”
by spindleshanks
Thursday, January 24 2013, 2:09PM
“@ eponymice
As I stated earlier, without the proposed town centre supermarket you can wave goodbye to 30% of the shops in Torquay's town centre. I should have qualified that by stating 99% of those would be in Union Street which might as well be flattened and handed over for residential development. Torquay has to bite the bullet and either do something pretty drastic (as recommended by the Princes Foundation) or face years of terminal decline.
I tried to remember the last time I NEEDED to visit the town centre and came to the conclusion it was when I required a pair of prescription glasses. Sure it is common sense to drive to an out of town supermarket with free and ample parking when there is Hobson's choice in the town centre.
A few years ago in a Community Partnership meeting I suggested that town centre shops in Torquay be allowed to be converted into residential units whilst retaining window displays that could be rented to neighbouring retail units or used for advertising local attractions. At least some semblance of a traditional high street could be maintained whilst avoiding the pitfall of empty buildings and a growing housing list. A lot of people laughed at the idea. Funny how years later Mary Portas comes up with much the same idea in her recent report on retailing.
As a tourism destination the idea could work as it would allow the current fall out in high street retailers to occur without there being a noticeable difference in the high street itself.”
by SidneyNuff
Thursday, January 24 2013, 12:56PM
“Well I didn't get one of the Colleys leaflets and I live in the town centre, I wonder if she has distribution problems. Who wants to shop in a town centre littered with drug rehab, alcohol rehab and doss houses. If you want to attract people with spending power make it attractive to people with spending power, if you want to attract drug addicts etc make it attractive for them. It seems Torquay Council has decided who the town centre is for. You are less likely to get mugged on line or to be asked for any small change for a cup of tea by some toothless dosser who has never drank tea in his life.”
by eponymice
Thursday, January 24 2013, 11:34AM
“@ spindleshanks
As I have commented on occasion in recent months the business model of most current town centre businesses is no longer sustainable in the long term, as highlighted by Alan Tyerman in this article. While high rents and rates and to a much lesser degree parking charges, have a limited influence on the viability of town centre retail outlets, the evolution of peoples shopping habits is having a far more significant impact - an impact which is not reversible.
It appears that attracting a supermarket to the town hall car park is still under consideration. A full size supermarket would undoubtedly have a positive effect on some of those retailers in the immediate vicinity, others it would kill off, but it is very unlikely to be of any help to those in Fleet Walk and the lower reaches of Union Street. For a supermarket to have any significant impact in attracting footfall to the town centre it would need to be at the centre, not at an extremity. I appreciate that this is probably not achievable given the geography of Torquay.
As I have previously suggested the most likely scenario for a more sustainable town centre is to promote a Totnes like environment of individual entrepreneurs. This would not fill all the current retail sites consequently the council should consider allowing change of use of current retail outlets to residential to bring the numbers in line with what can be supported by the footfall.
I certainly do not feel as though I am 'letting the side down' by shopping at the Willows, it is an entirely logical decision based on common sense and convenience. It is up to the suppliers of goods and services to adapt to the needs of the buyers not the other way around.”
by spindleshanks
Thursday, January 24 2013, 8:50AM
“Unless a substantial supermarket selling the necessities of life, (i.e. food), is developed in Torquay town centre, you can wave goodbye to at least 30% of the shops in the town that simply won't be needed for retailing purposes in years to come. Put simply, the current footfall in Torquay town centre doesn't support the number of retail units in the town and it is the local population that is letting the side down by driving out to the Willows, Asda, M & S and beyond to do their grocery shop.
Views anyone?”