Meeting Tomorrow

Business for Dumbarton meet at Aunties Tea Room in High Street Dumbarton tomorrow night at 6pm. Police Inspector Ian Wallace will be there to answer questions. All members welcome.

What the Scottish Government Says About Town Centres

From SPP8 published in 2006

(b) FOCUSING DEVELOPMENT IN TOWN CENTRES

15. Planning authorities and developers should adopt a sequential approach to selecting sites for all retail and commercial uses, unless guidance in this SPP or the development plan provides for a particular exception. The principles underlying the sequential approach also apply to proposals to expand, or change the use of existing developments, where the proposals are of a scale or form sufficient to change their role and function. The sequential approach requires that locations are considered in the following order (See Box 3):

Box 3 : Sequential Approach

i. Town centre sites;

ii. Edge of town centre sites;

iii. Other commercial centres identified within the development plan;

iv. Out-of-centre sites in locations that are, or can be made, easily accessible by a choice of modes of transport.

Here is what the document says about Commercial Centres (St James Retail Park’s designation)

19. Commercial Centres (See Box 1) which are focussed on particular uses, for example shopping and leisure and which are identified in the development plan as part of the network, could provide a suitable location for development. This will be where their function complements that of other centres within the network.

And here is what it says about accessibility to town centres:

(e) ENHANCING ACCESSIBILITY

30. All retail, leisure and related developments are required to provide a high degree of accessibility, by a range of modes including public transport. They should be located close to existing access networks that have potential to accommodate higher density development, or where accessibility can be improved by developer or public funding. Where transport improvements are necessary these should be in place before developments begin operation. Policy and guidance on planning for transport can be found in SPP 17, PAN 75, PAN 66 and ‘Transport Assessment and Implementation: A Guide’ 10.

31. Accessibility for people and the delivery of goods is essential to the success of a town centre. The perception of convenience is also a key element, for example whether a location is in close proximity to a person’s home or place of work and the easy availability of short-term parking. A mix of uses enhances the likelihood of multi-purpose journeys.

32. Access is also a key element of the wider social justice and health improvement agendas. Town and commercial centres should be accessible at all times to all sectors of the community and include the appropriate provision of facilities for disabled people.

The full document is here.

How to Kill off a Once Thriving Town Centre

I featured this article from the Sunday Herald by Joanna Blythman in May.
This is perhaps an appropriate time to remember a few words from the article entitled ‘How to Kill Off a Once Thriving Town Centre’, in which she featured Kirkcaldy.

‘Actually, you could use Kirkcaldy as a case study in how to kill off a once thriving town centre. Number one: Identify the busiest street and pedestrianise it. In modern times, Scotland has not been blessed with the most talented architects and planners, but when are they going to realise that pedestrianisation only works on a large scale, as exemplified by cities such as Strasbourg and Verona, where well thought-out, extensive pedestrianisation is supported by good public transport and park-and-ride schemes?

Piecemeal, tokenistic pedestrianisation as we know it in small-town Scotland is a proven disaster.

Number two: Compound this error with a one-way system around the pedestrianised area so that the whole momentum of the road layout encourages people to bypass the centre, rather than spending time in it.

Number three: Say yes to every planning application for edge-of-town retail parks and supermarkets. With their bays of free parking they act as giant Hoovers sucking all the retail life out of the traditional centre, killing off independent shops. I’m talking about Kirkcaldy, but the same calamitous policies have devastated previously bustling centres such as Peterhead, Kilmarnock, Fort William and Arbroath.’

Retail Crisis

A report published yesterday by respected Insolvency experts Begbie and Traynor details that 323 major retailers are in crisis and have a 70% or greater chance of going bust in the coming months. Whilst none of the companies have been named it would be likely I’m sure that JJB Sports (see below) is one of them. Another possibility could be Woolworths who yesterday took the decision not to pay their business rates meantime. This is worrying news as Woolworths is currently an anchor store in Dumbarton town centre. One piece of comfort in all this is that Woolworths while closing their Braehead store, have kept the Dumbarton one open and have been quoted as saying that it is a good performer.

Decision Delayed

Following the late objections to the proposed St. James Park retail development by Business for Dumbarton and Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce, The application was continued at this morning’s planning meeting. This means it will be considered at November’s meeting.

Part of the proposal concerns a shop and leisure centre operated by JJB Sports whose insurer has just withdrawn insolvency cover. However this is almost a side issue. It is abundantly clear that there are two proposed retail developments for Dumbarton. From all my discussions and enquiries on the matter I am convinced that if the St James Retail Park proposal goes ahead, then it throws any plans for the redevelopment and regeneration of Dumbarton Town Centre into disarray.

The Jermon proposals should not be seen as a panacea for all ills. Indeed their plans will present a big challenge to us in terms of increased competition from not only another supermarket but also from other national retailers. However it is the plan which offers a real chance of town centre regeneration. The St James plan offers only further degeneration.

It really is a straight choice between these two plans.

St. James Retail Park

An amendment to the existing application for seven retail units at St. James Retail Park is to be considered by West Dunbartonshire Council Planning Committee on Tuesday (7th October) at 10:00 am.

The relevant points for Business for Dumbarton are that despite the result of the judicial review (Jermon) earlier this year, despite assurances that re-generation of the town centre is a priority, despite the fact that there is still no resolution of the traffic management issue and despite the fact that by the council’s own figures, the resultant downturn in the already beleaguered centre will be 7%, acceptance has been recommended by the planning officers.

The document I have seen regarding this acknowledges that Jermon developments could provide units of a similar size in the Artizan Centre. The council however seem to be saying that these would not be provided quickly enough. Jermon has intimated that work would begin in 2009. WDC dispute this and say that it would take five years.

We are at a point in economic history where companies of the very profile who would occupy the type of units proposed are returning vastly reduced profits and are rationalising. The financial industry is facing meltdown and as we all know the challenge to existing business nationwide is daunting to say the least. That challenge is all the more acute in small to medium towns like Dumbarton and more acute still in their town centres.

The opportunity to provide retail units and regenerate Dumbarton Town Centre (in partnership with a company who has a track record in turning round similar profile centres) is clearly there. One wonders if there is any desire at all on the part of the council to embrace that opportunity.

Anti-Social Behaviour

John Corcoran and I met with Inpector Ian Wallace of Strathclyde Police on Friday. Also in attendance was Kevin Neeson of West Dunbartonshire Council. The meeting was as a result of a letter I had written to the Chief Constable expressing concern on several matters including policing levels but particularly the ongoing and increasing level of anti-social behaviour in the High Street and town centre.
Several positives arose from the meeting. It seems we are all in agreement that the current levels of nuisance behaviour from a hard core of twenty or so individuals is unacceptable. The problem is in dealing with this effectively. We all agreed to a series of initial steps we could take to address the situation and Ian has agreed to address a meeting of Business for Dumbarton (date to be confirmed but the 21st or 28th October look most likely). This will be followed at a later stage by a wider meeting on the issue.

Kevin Neeson agreed to explore several possibilities to assist us and this could include financial support for a specific project.

I will be able to share more details when I am in a position to do so but in the meantime, Ian Wallace makes one particular plea and that is that we should always report anti-social behaviour and crime to the police.