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Hope for town centre shops
Wigan town centre
COULD Wigan’s shops be in line for a rescue mission from retail troubleshooter Mary Portas?
That was the hope today, as a bid was being prepared to win aid from a scheme launched by the woman known as Mary Queen of Shops.
Managers behind the Wiganplus loyalty scheme hope that by becoming one of 12 Government-sponsored towns called Portas Pilots, that Wigan can attract a new wave of customers to its town centre. The winners will benefit from a share of £1m to help turn around their local streets’ fortunes.
The competition comes as latest figures from the Local Data Company show that a quarter of Wigan’s retail units are now empty.
FULL STORY IN THE WIGAN EVENING POST (MONDAY) ...
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Friday 25 May 2012
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Comments
There are 22 comments to this article
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razzle76
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:46 AMMaybe if Wigan council didnt lay people off or hound them out of their jobs to save money and lessen the service it provides to its own residents, Not to mention those people that are left employed on reduced wages or those in fear of further cuts. Those people would be in the shops spending money. As it happens what they are saving in wages they are losing in shop rents. Its simple economics. See the article on low paid council workers and that backs up my point. The council is as someone rightly said concerned only with making a short term saving. I wonder if the shop rents are set artificially high in the EMPTY arcades either to empty the shopping to make it attractive to developers or so the stores in the new arcade dont get tempted to move to a cheaper site!
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Friday, February 17, 2012 at 12:02 PMOscar..... " And BERTIBERT, take your five year old chain e-mail elsewhere, you copy and paste monkey! ".............The Death of Common Sense is a observation of how the " Lunatics are running the Country ".....it may be copy and paste..but it is TRUE....
Mike Riddell
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 09:52 PMWigan for Wiganers is more or less correct. I wasn't joint MD of Modus...I was MD of it's urban regeneration subsidiary which did build the Grand Arcade after it bought the old amusement arcade on Station Road (as it was) to build a Wilkinsons store. We were told by a John Sloane who was chief planner that they had that part of town ear marked for a shopping centre. At the time the banks sales people were incentivised to lend money to developers like Modus...as long as the bosses signed Personal Guarantees, which me and Brendan the boss did... And yes too much money was borrowed and yes when the game of musical chairs stopped Modus collapsed under the weight of debt, then the banks came after me for the personal guarantees i'd signed in the hey days. They wanted to bankrupt me and almost did, but i managed to reach an Individual Voluntary Agreement with them and paid them all the money i had which was about £524,000 - better than the £59m they had me down for. But i was lucky. When i was at Modus we had an investor who made a lot of money out of us when times were good. He didn't sign any of the PGs and felt sorry for me when i got into trouble. He gave my wife some money as a thanks for what we'd done for him - the banks couldn't touch that cos she hadn't signed any PG's...just me and Brendan. We've invested some of that money back into Wigan now - WiganPlus which we're turning into a co-op pretty soon. Maybe Grand Arcade was ill conceived - i don't know. what i do know is that people are now skint because of the financial crisis AND that people now prefer to shop online or in supermarkets. I don't blame them for that - i do the same myself. But we are where we are and we need to turn the corner and i've got an idea on how i think i can help. Mike O'Conner who is chair of Wigan Markets said today that what i'm doing with him is my 'redemption'. I had to laugh since that's one of my fav ever songs. You don't need to do any research on me - though if you do it's all up there and out there as I've nothing to hide, or be ashamed of. You can pop in our shop next to Clarks and ask me any question you like. It'd be nice if you had the bottle to ask me why i do what i do though :) Mike.
Wigan For Wiganers
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:47 AMIt does feel a little disappointing that Mr Riddell is now trying to save the High Street in Wigan?? Perhaps we all need to do a bit of research on him. Wasn’t he the Joint MD of Modus? Didn't they propose and build Grand Arcade? Didn't they then finance the building so much that it went into Administration? Hasn't that ill-conceived building been part of the problem and NOT the solution? What does he think he's doing with WiganPlus? Was this all part of his master plan - ruin the High Street and then try and suggest that he's the best person to save it? hhhhmmm.....
0scar
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:07 AMAll those complaining about traffic wardens can easily solve their problems by simply PARKING LEGALLY! It doesn't matter if you think you were doing no harm or not causing an obstruction, if the rules say no parking then don't park. There are many laws and rules in this country that I think are pointless or foolish but I still obey them because it's not up to me to decide which rules I wish to follow and which I don't. If you're too tight to pay a paltry £3.50 to park while you shop then I don't think you're likely to have the spending power to be of any help to a faltering town centre. And BERTIBERT, take your five year old chain e-mail elsewhere, you copy and paste monkey!
symphonymusic
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 08:25 AMJemmyH- thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware that non-domestic rates were centrally pooled and so that does diminish some of my reasoning for why developments may occur. I do stand by the fact that some developments have been ill-consideredneedless and I assume that the GalleriesMarketgate are not GrII listed (and they are the most prominent areas of vacancy in the town centre) - though as you state this neither advantages nor disadvantages the council. Would you agree that the business rates model (and its methods - albeit factual) of valuing town centre properties and the difficulties in getting them reassessed is contributing to the struggle of the high street or would you say that they are still a fair assessment in today's multi-channel retail environment?
Scarecrow
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 07:59 AMBERTIBERT Whats it got to do with the thread?
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 02:28 AMCommon Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 02:25 AMThe Sad Passing of Common Sense......... Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape............ He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault................... Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge)............. His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place........ Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition................... Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.................. He declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
JemmyH
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 12:25 AMSymphonymusic - Business rates, which are collected by councils, are paid into a central pool and then redistributed to local authority areas on a population basis. So, no matter how many commercial properties Wigan council allow to be built, they'll only receive the same amount of funding, relative to the population. ...... If they increase the population, by allowing more domestic properties to be built, they'll receive more domestic council tax (from the newky built houses) and more business rates from the government fund due to the increased population figure. ...... Empty commercial properties are exempt from business rates if they are listed buildings. Note .... most buildings in Wigan town centre are 'grade 2 listed' and, therefore, exempt from paying unoccupied rates. But, it's no loss to Wigan council as they still get the same amount back off the government relative to the population of the authority's area.
symphonymusic
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 11:20 PMJemmyH - you are right in that the council don't set the rents or rates they are the recipients of the business rates receipts. This, alongside other factors means that the council is inherently incentivised to penilise the town centre - - most empty properties still attract business rates from the landlords so the council is not as disadvantaged as you might imagine by their vacancy. This is designed to encourage landlords to make their rents competitive by hurting them if their properties are vacant. However, the business rates alone in many high street stores is prohibitive enough to deter new stores; they are based upon a bygone era of a bustling high street that is now simply irrelevant. - moreover this means that if they allow planning of more retail premises they are essentially writing themselves a cheque for greater rates receipts. This is possibly why the Grand Arcade was pushed through even though it simply served to move occupancy - the council has been incentivised by our previous Government to penilise town-centre drivers and encourage parking charge increases When this is all taken into context it is clear that although the council isn't blameless (the nature of councils and commitees is that they often can't see past the end of their nose) it is obvious that the guidelines and legislation put in place actually encourage the disadvantaging of high street retail. As feared, the Portas review simply paid lip service to the issues and focussed on micro-managing the problem through pr-friendly gimmicks. I would love to see Wigan be chosen as a pilot for its implementation but 112th of £1m is not a lot to take what is a structural problem in high street retail.
JemmyH
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 08:37 PMWisewiganer ??????? There's no such thing. ....... Why do you blame the council for everything? .... The council don't own the shops. The council don't set the rents. The council don't set the business rates. The council don't get the business rates. ...... The reason for the decline in shoppers in Wigan is that all town's shopping centres are the same. All the same shops, all selling the same stuff at the same price. There's no individuality. ...... St.Helens, Warrington, Bolton, Skelmersdale, Leigh, Ashton, Chorley, Pemberton, Hindley, Westhoughton etc. are all towns with shopping centres. Most are closer than Wigan for many people and most people will go shopping to their 'local town'. ....... Why would anybody who doesn't live near to Wigan go to Wigan shopping?
Mistress Ploppy
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 08:11 PMHow much of the car parking revenue is paid out to the company subcontracted to provide traffic wardens? How much does it cost to collect and administer car parking charges? How does the income from parking compare to the loss of revenue from all the empty shops? Maybe somebody with the data could enlighten us. I don't know the answer to these questions, but my guess is that the net revenue gained is definitely not worth the social loss of having a ghost town.
Wandering Wiganer
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 05:22 PMThe Council could make town centre parking free tomorrow, but ultimately they would have to make up for the loss of income somehow. That is the reality. Choose your poison. Doesn't matter who's name is above the door, a budget is a budget. I'm sure all would agree that a solution needs to be implemented that helps both businesses and shoppers. I don't know what that solution is, so do es anyone else have a suggestion?
Traindriver
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 04:32 PMThe trouble with Wigan Town Centre is getting there. The roads connecting it from all sides are absolutely horrendous and the public transport very expensive.
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