Retail Revival Demands Ideas – Not Just Money!
19/12/2011

The Mary Portas plan to revive the ‘outdated’ high street is very much in the news at the moment, and most would agree with the spirit, if not the detail, of her proposals.

Certainly our own Bishop’s Stortford high street has an increasing number of voids, and the ominous incursion of its first pound store – a cut price one at that!  – which trades as ‘99p’.

Of the original independent retailers that gave the town its character, Boardmans has reinvented itself as on-line retail warehouse, and Joscelynes has retrenched and largely relocated to Cambridge, leaving Tissimans and Zellys to maintain the Victorian ideal of the high street.

Town centre parking is a sensitive issue and that, together with massive traffic disruption, will become an even hotter issue as the Henderson Plan for the redevelopment of Bishop’s Stortford town centre – widely opposed by locals but rubber stamped at county level – comes into effect over the next two or three years.

Could Mary Portas, the so called ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ be our saviour?

Her recommendations include creating more free parking spaces (check, but I don’t see the UDC going overboard for that one); imposing penalties on landlords who have empty properties (check again: it might just act as a corrective to inflated rents and upward only reviews); and changing the planning laws to encourage new developments in town centres (well, we’ve been there and done that, and the Henderson plan will be an exercise in overkill: it will dramatically reduce the inadequate parking we do have, whilst erasing any remaining character in what was an historic market town).

Mary also encourages the creation of new market pitches and the celebration of a national market day. Bravo! To be fair, Bishop’s Stortford can still lay claim to being a legitimate market town: it has a lively street market, and the recent pedestrianisation of North Street on market days is a welcome development. The occasional French and Italian market also lend a little spice and are a popular attraction. At least we get something right.

But what the planners don’t seem to recognise is that there is more to life than simply shopping: what is needed is living space where people can meet, eat, relax and be entertained – or simply sit and watch the world go by. Think of Covent Garden with its buskers, barkers, street entertainers, pubs, cafes, flea markets, theatres and thriving independent businesses.

And if you think that’s an unfair comparison, I offer you Port Arcades at Ellesmere Port, a shopping centre managed by our clients Frogmore. It’s a community not dissimilar to ours, and has its own problems with voids, parking and out-of-town competition.  Like our own Jackson Square, it’s benefitted from a new extension which has attracted national retailers, and is next door to an indoor market (a pity, incidentally, that we didn’t turn our old Woollies into one).

But, and here’s the difference, the management haven’t rested on their laurels. Critically, they’ve reduced their rents and granted concessions to retailers to help stimulate new lettings. They’ve also done their best to make it a fun place to visit.

Over Halloween and the pre-Christmas season the mall has been home to such fantastic characters as Randolph the Great Wizard, the Invisible Man, Archie the Robot and Frostini the Snowman, who have gone a long way towards enhancing the local ‘retail experience’ – not to mention the footfall .

And as the Christmas season begins in earnest they have a whole series of free live acts and events lined up, including the Runaway Reindeer Duo, Sister Ruth and her Grand Piano, Live Ice Sculpture and a Decorate a Gingerbread Man competition for the kiddies. And don’t imagine they’ve been neglecting the New Year, St Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mothers’ Day and everything else on the event calendar (or failing that, creating their own events).

It’s working well for them, and the great thing about it is, it doesn’t require a multi-million pound investment – just a little imagination! Anyone here got a little to spare?

By The Trickster (the grumpy old man of advertising)