James Harbison, speaking for British Land in this week’s Dumbarton Reporter, stated that Dumbarton Town Centre and High Street would actually benefit from his company’s plans to extend St James Retail Park. This is indeed a curious view which flies in the face of all available evidence, including the Retail Impact Assessment which accompanied British Land’s previous application and appears to have been updated to 2011.
The cost to the town centre and High Street is there in black and white. It would be £2.1 million per annum, representing a drop in turnover for the town centre of 18.7%. The total turnover of the town centre (including the High Street) is £11.23 million. The turnover of St James Retail Park is £32.06 million with Asda alone exceeding the turnover for the whole town centre by some £3 million.
I am in regular contact with many of the businesses and let there be no doubt. If business in the town centre were to suffer that kind of drop it would be a catastrophe for Dumbarton. The current 30% vacancy rate for commercial property would become a nostalgic dream.
La Salle, the new owners of the Artizan Centre have an excellent track record of investing in, and regenerating struggling shopping centres. They own centres in Bexleyheath, Kingston Upon Thames, York, Chelmsford, Colchester and nearer home in Cumbernauld. The refurbishment of the Artizan Centre is something that town centre visitors have longed for over many years and it now looks as if there is an investor ready to do that.
It would be a real shame if further development at St James were to put that regeneration and investment at risk.
