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News Andy is new man at The Mall RETAILING is in the blood of Andy Davy, the newmanager of The Mall, in Maidstone.
As a Saturday boy in his local branch ofWHSmith in Eastbourne, he decided not to follow his peers to university, but instead to work hisway up the ranks in store man- agement – a move that saw him stay with the sta- tionery chain for 27 years. He said:
Andy Davy
“WHSmith had a fabulous training system and it enabled me to work in a variety of locations.” However, Andy (52) has man-
aged to keep his feet firmly south of the north-south divide, working only as far north as Oxford and liv- ing for 20 years in Petersfield, Hampshire, prior to taking up his Maidstone post. Having spent a lifetime commut-
ing significant distances, Andy has chosen to live in St Leonards-on- Sea, near Hastings – a “mere hour’s commute” to Maidstone and 20 minutes to his beloved fishing boat, which is moored in Eastbourne. He said: “I had worked for The
Mall group before and knew the challenges which lay ahead in Maidstone and what the group had in mind. But I also saw it as a chance to move back east and re- store some of my work/life bal- ance.”
Andy’s wife Cathy has taken a
job at a store in Tunbridge Wells, but he said: “An hour is the short- est commute I have ever had. At
one point, I was driving to Uxbridge along the M3 and M25 – which could take me up to 2½ hours eachway!” After 27 years with WH Smith
and three years in management for Homebase, Andy joined The Mall group in 2008, initially working in Southampton. He said: “It’s a great company to
work for. I have far more accounta- bility and autonomy here than any- where else.” As well as taking his boat out to
sea to sweep away the cares of the working week, Andy enjoys walk- ing his two dogs – a Westie and a Tibetan terrier. He and his wife also love deep-
sea diving. Both are PADI-qualified rescue divers and take part in a “reef clean-up” in the Red Sea each February. Andy’s ambition now is to shark
dive in the Bahamas or the waters around the Galapagos Islands. Back on dry land, he’s in charge of a shopping centre worth £80m
and a working budget of £2.5m a year.
But, as a man well used to sur-
viving in choppywaters, the future of the Mall looks like it’s in safe hands. He said: “Maidstone is a lovely
town and there are a lot of people trying to do a lot of good things. There is some fantastic stuff going on.
“It just needs a strategic, more co- ordinated approach to make this the best county town.”
£4m faceli plan for shopping centre Continued from page one
where a large planning applica- tion was refused but might go to appeal. Mr Davy revealed that theMall
had 80,000sqft of vacant space available at present – equivalent to the space required at Newn- ham Court by the key depart- ment store. He said: “The long-term plans
for The Mall depend on what does or does not happen at J7.” But he revealed that whatever
the outcome, the town centre would not be standing still. He said: “We have three plans
in place – short, medium and long-term. At the present time, we don’t know which route we will take.” He said only leases of up to two
years were now being granted. “If the Newnham Court redevel- opment does not go ahead, we want to be in a position to react
quickly. Maidstone needs Debenhams – it is the missing de- partment store.” Another factor in Maidstone’s
future was the recent takeover of Aviva’s stake in The Mall shop- ping centre chain by Capital & Regional, which had resulted in a huge pot of money beingmade available to invest in its six cen- tres across the country. The first £4m to be spent in Maidstone would start in January in a year-long improvement plan. A planning application was
due to be submitted in Septem- ber for two new entrances – in King Street and Gabriels Hill – which would form part of amid- term plan to redevelop the west- ern end of The Mall and the former TJ Hughes site, creating space for two department stores, said Mr Davy. He said: “Without a doubt, the centre is out of date. It hasn’t had
money spent on it in a long time.” But he assured: “It will always
be a community mall, with inde- pendent retailers – that formula will not change. We may have different anchor retailers but there will always be independent traders.” A major £100m overhaul – to include housing and car parking – as revealed by Capital & Re- gional six months ago, was still 10 to15 years away, said Mr Davy, but he added: “The major plan is changing all the time, but one thing is certain – we are ab- solutely determined to be part of Maidstone in the future.” A spokesman for Land Se- curities said the landowner was yet to decide whether it would appeal against Maidstone Coun- cil’s decision to refuse planning permission for the large retail scheme at Newnham Court.
New plans forwoodland Waterside Park ‘refined’
CAMPAIGNERS are gearing up for another battle after Croudace Homes came up with new proposals for housing on land east of Hermitage Lane in Allington. In July, the developer’s appli-
cation for 500 homes on land bordering Maidstone Hospital and Howard Drive was refused because it would have eroded ancient woodland (known as BluebellWood), offered no con- tribution towards a country park and had an allocation of only 30% affordable housing. Now Croudace has unveiled
two alternative proposals. The first is for 450 homes with ac- cess fromHermitage Lane and a bus and pedestrian-only access from Howard Drive. Land would be set aside for a
primary school and there would be no need for an access road through the ancient woodland. The second proposal is for 80 homes south of the ancient woodland, known as Hospital Field. A road through the wood would be required. The New Allington Action Group, which campaigned to prevent the 500-home scheme, has vowed to fight the latest proposals. It also criticised Croudace Homes for spraying protected trees in the woodland with yel- low paint just days after the planning committee had made its decision, which is being ap- pealed by the developer. The new proposals can be
seen on NAAG’s website:
www.naag.kry4help.co.uk.
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DEVELOPERS keen to create an in- dustrial park in Hollingbourne have refined their proposals, in the hope of winning over town planners. Maidstone Coun-
cil threw out an ear- lier application from Gallagher Proper- ties which wants to create Waterside Park near J8 of the M20 – even though
twoMarden companies are keen to move in. Scarab Sweepers and Automotive Distribution, both of which have substantial premises in Pattenden Lane, Marden, have threatened to move out of the area, taking with them a significant number of jobs, if the new development does not go ahead.
Gallagher Properties has now re- submitted its application but on a much-reduced scale. The height of the two tallest build-
ings has been reduced by twometres and the total built-up area of the pro- posed park has been reduced by 20%. The development area as a whole
has been reduced from 11.7 hectares to 10.2.
Councillors said the original plan
would have been detrimental to the countryside because of its size, mass and design. Another concern had been the amount of excavation needed to cre- ate a level area for the park, and the new plans have reduced that by 30%.
Residents’ groups and parish councils in the area were vehe- mently opposed to the application. Nick Yandle (pictured), of Gal- laghers, said: “It was a finely bal- anced decision to refuse and the changes demonstratewe have done more than pay lip service to the rea- sons for refusal and hopefully swing the scales back the otherway.”
Maidstone Town September 2014 37
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