01/04/2017
I WAS ASKED FOR MY VIEW ON YET ANOTHER MAJOR STORE CLOSING IN OUR TOWN CENTRE,
THIS WAS MY REPLY TO A THREAD ON THE SCUNTHORPE TELEGRAPH SITE.Liz,
As you and many other people know,I have campaigned to protect OUR Town Centre for many years.
It doesn't matter if our council was controlled by the conservative group or the labour group,neither party had a vision or the will and commitment to give the people of Scunthorpe and the whole of North Lincolnshire,the quality Town Centre that they deserve.
In mine and many other people's opinions,the Council have abandoned OUR Town Centre,they have a vision and a commitment of moving the town centre to the Glanford Park area.
The final nail in the coffin was when the then planning committee members granted planning permission for the FOURTH YES FOURTH out of town retail park,that houses Marks and Spencer's who abandoned our town centre in January 2011,knowing that they would be returning to the new retail park,because they were already in negotiations about the new store,even before they closed the High Street one,and by August 2011 the closure of M&S resulted in 484 thousand less people visiting OUR Town Centre,this had a very damaging affect on the remaining retailers.
Then TJ Hughes closed there doors resulting in a 42.000 sq foot unit empty and remains so.
This saw Coffee Republic close,then Officers Club,then HMV,then Excited For Him and Excited For Her,it was like a stack of dominoes one store after another closing,and as is well documented in the press,our beloved family company Fallen Hero closed its doors on the 07th of May 2014.When the developers of the new retail park submitted there original planning application,they had to submit there own retail impact study report,i.e. There opinion of how there New development would affect retail businesses in OUR Town Centre,and low and behold even they admitted it would see a staggering £11 MILLION POUNDS of Town Centre trade diverted to the retail park.I then managed to convince the planning department at North Lincs Council to carry out there own INDEPENDENT RETAIL IMPACT STUDY,the result of this survey stated that it would be £16 MILLION POUNDS OF TRADE that would be diverted to the new retail park,I said at the time this would see a lot of businesses having to close there doors and cease trading,resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs,and as you and everyone else have seen this unfortunately has in fact happened.
Also another thing that I pointed out to Liz Redfern the then leader of the Council,and the rest of her councillors and the planning department,was that whilst I was concerned about the amount of empty units in OUR Town Centre at that time,I was in fact more worried about the rest of the stores that were still trading in the Parishes,as I pointed out to them that most of the leases would expire in 2017 and guess what Liz Clarke Wright we are in 2017 and those stores are leaving the town as we can all see,they would of left 2 years ago but they couldn't because they were tied to the lease.
There will be more to close before the end of the summer trading season.
Just to give you an example of the costs that some of the retailers were forced to endure,
TJ Hughes Rent,Rates and service charge was a staggering £450 thousand per year,no wonder it is still closed,
Fallen Hero £67 thousand rent,£40 thousand rates and £24 thousand service charge to the shopping centre,BHS WERE PAYING IN 2011 around £180 thousand in rates alone,and I could go on giving you lots more examples.
THIS IS MY PREDICTION LIZ,the retailers will continue to close there doors,the landlords who in my experience was extremely greedy with there rent demands,wanting to continually increase our rent when the centre was dying,for every empty unit the landlord will have to pay 100% of the business rates payable,they won't be willing to continue doing this,so then you will see them applying to the planning department at North Lincs Council for permission to DEMOLISH YES DEMOLISH Liz,the whole of the parishes retail units,that way they would NOT have to pay any rates whatsoever.
Then the next move will be to build houses/flats etc with the land lords and developer making millions of pounds from that development.
If this does happen Liz then we can all wave goodbye to OUR Town Centre,and say hello to the new town centre around the Glanford Park Area,
WE REALLY DO NEED A PUBLIC MEETING LIZ,would you be up for this.
OUR COUNCIL SHOULD HANG THERE HEADS IN SHAME.
Time for a big change at the next local council elections in 2019.
A new political party,giving people the chance to make the change that we have all wanted,but did not believe could ever happen.
WELL BELIEVE ME IT REALLY CAN
