part of the lives of millions of people all over the world. The negative features of constraints and congestion of centres have been exchanged for the positive features of accessibility and convenience found in retail parks and out of town shopping centres. Here spending on high and low volume /bulk convenience and comparison goods is channelled through them being easily and conveniently accessed. In fact the trade- off is between cost and convenience.


Out of town started on a large-scale post Second World War in that the main planning solutions in the UK were Expanded Towns and New Towns. The beauty of new towns, such as Cwmbran, was that they were built with creating sub-regional shopping centres in mind. They provided accessibility with ample free parking / convenience on a plate. It is no wonder that Cwmbran’s vacancy rate is currently at 5-6% as opposed to the current 11% national average and that it impacts heavily on the desperate plight of surrounding towns and cities.


3) SOCIAL / COMMUNITY WELL-BEING / ROLE Now market to the people not people to the market Surely the overall public interest concern in society is not the priority to protect the high street but to make sure that the population is fed, clothed and housed. Whereas traditionally it was a case of “people to the market” it is now “market to the people” ie- convenience in whatever form that takes including the Internet. This does not sit well with those policies created to recreate town centres with a defunct utility.


Socio/economic heritage The problem of trade diversion “in” city centres associated with regeneration is a deliberately unacknowledged problem. After the Iceland case, Newport City Council commissioned a retail study and capacity assessment. Their summary of the report, regarding job creation benefits of further retail development described, on a specific point, the circumstances relating to additional retail development where trade diversion from existing retailers and job transfer could occur. This potentially impacted negatively on existing centres with no new significant retail


38


Friars Walk, Newport


employment generated but rather a redistribution of existing jobs around the City. (R (on the application of) Iceland Foods Ltd Claimant v Newport City Council.


Community It is significant that with extensive growth (including residential) the desire for convenient retail and local social interaction drives the creation of new centres. The town centre itself retains a varied function, including community, recognising also that due to the Localism Act 2011 it will be subject to the “duty to cooperate”. The immediate indigenous residential community at town centres actually seek, as a minimum, levels of convenience shopping found in neighbourhoods. They are the ones who have seen the irreversible changes and eventually have to be satisfied with what can trade at a lower level of activity.


Empirical evidence of decline in South Wales traditional shopping centres


The UK government is prepared to provide £100,000 to each of 12 Town Pilots suggested by Portas as a way of experimenting with her recommendations. Too little money and too little time have been allocated for a realistic assessment to be made. The approach in terms of sustainability is to be questioned.


Throughout Wales are many examples of town centres in crisis. Newport, Pontypridd, Barry, Ebbw Vale, Bridgend and Llanelli provide examples of critical


negative factors:


ll Departure of original core business of or associated with the town


ll Long linear high streets lacking parking and focus


ll In-town growth constrained requiring more convenient and accessible sub-centres in the form of superstores and retail parks


ll Competition from larger and more successful centres and their satellites


ll Immoveable physical constraints ll Traditional v development conflict


ll A history of unhelpful, failed, misdirected attempts at retail led regeneration


Newport CC has even attempted to revive its core by creating a new centre, Friar’s Walk, adjacent to Commercial Street, in the face of all the foregoing accessibility and convenience aspects described earlier. The Council with its developer was reported as agreeing to extract major stores from Commercial Street (the main high street) to locate in Friar’s Walk. The explanation as to how this complements Commercial Street is still awaited.


Planning policy, urban growth and in-town retail


If, as empirical evidence in Wales seems to support urban economic theory,


THE TERRIER - Summer 2012


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