I am pleased with the Report the High Street, Town & City Centre Commission has brought to Cabinet, this builds on the report which I brought to the then Executive of the Council in 2014.
Retail in the UK faces an unprecedented challenge in the first quarter of the 21st Century as shown in the graph in Item 1.4 of the Report, the rise of Online sales, which has grown from practically nothing at the time of the Millennium, to 10% of Retail sales in 2014, to 20% last year, reaching a peak of over 30% during the first lockdown period, a level of 25% may well be the “new normal” but that too will grow.
Ultimately, our Town & City centres, our High Streets, must adapt not only to survive but also to thrive.
For this we have got to get more people back into the habit of shopping, as fundamentally, for all that we can do as Councillors, the future relies on our residents hitting the high street, its their footfall which is the lifeblood of the high street.
Indeed, as an overview, when we think of the future of our high streets, we need to think of Mars Bars, as they need to become great places to work, rest and play.
On a wider note, recent announcements have indicated the Council has more financial room for manoeuvre than it thought it might, I would urge Cabinet to consider some short term boosts it could give our High Streets in the run up to Christmas and also the spring of next year. I believe we need to look at making it easier for our residents to access the high street and for example, we ought to consider whether pedestrianised areas implemented in the 1980s and 90s are now helping or hindering our high streets, especially in an era of “click and collect”.
This report outlines in detail over 230 factors, 25 priorities and 4 key recommendations for the Cabinet to consider and I hope you will approve this.
I would like to give my thanks to all those who contributed to the report especially all the comments we got from our residents and partners across the borough, there is clearly great demand and desire for the recovery of our High Streets and I hope this report will help us deliver it.
1 concern I do have, based on my experience of the 2014 report, is the recommendation with the Cabinet Report, at item 2.1, which refers to area based plans and the Regeneration Boards as being charged with monitoring their progress, I would urge Cabinet to consider a specific role for the existing Member Working Groups in relation to the creation and adoption of area based plans.
I do have a concern that as things stand we don’t have enough Local Focus involved with the individual High Street, Town and City centres we want to help. We already have Member Working Groups for the 4 big retail centres – Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich and Winsford.
We can hit the ground running with this, let’s do so.
[The 2020 Report was adopted with reassurances of local member involvement.]
Background on 2014 Report
Back in 2014, the Town & City Centres Working Group met 6 times, 4 of these in the specific locality being discussed at that meeting including a walking tour of the centre in question.
The report shows we came up with 44 main findings across the localities in the Borough, from which we had 11 conclusions, 7 recommendations and 11 considerations for “future proofing”.
The report is very extensive so will simply outline the 7 recommendations:
- Each Town & City Centre in the Borough should have a plan.
- We should encourage Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).
- We should encourage greater flexibility for our Town & City Centres.
- We should encourage more local “Places Strategy Services” for our Town & City Centres.
- We should consider rolling out Chester’s Cumulative Impact Policy across the Borough in relation to the night-time economy, where appropriate.
- Where BIDs or similar business / community based groups exist, their views should help form Council policy on Town & City Centres e.g. local car parking policies.
- The 4 Regeneration Boards should consider this report in shaping future proposals for their Town and City Centres.
I am very pleased with the Report produced by the Town & City Centre Working Group and I would like to thank all those who contributed towards it, the Councillors who were members of the working group, visiting Councillors, local employers, community representatives, Council Officers from each Locality, Alison Knight and her team, specifically to Fil Prevc, I work as a Chartered Surveyor in Commercial Property and I was very impressed with how he pulled such a huge amount of information together.
