Express & Star

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

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Report by DANIEL WAINWRIGHT

TOWN CENTRES FACING CRISIS

daniel.wainwright@expressandstar.co.uk

Raising the stakes with domination of betting shops fear

SHOPPERS are slowly abandoning town centres in the West Midlands because they are worse than they were 10 years ago and continue to struggle.
That is the result from the second day of the Express & Star Your Say Survey, the biggest independent analysis ever carried out in the Black Country and Staffordshire.
Almost 11,000 responses have been received on a variety of issues ranging from council services to transport and crime.. Day two is all about town centres. Our survey comes at a time when the high street is fighting for its very survival. The government has set up a scheme with Mary Portas, star of Mary Queen of Shops, to pilot different ideas but only Wolverhampton in our region was successful in getting the go-ahead to try new ideas.

There are far too many betting shops in town centres, say 65.8 per cent of people.
A further 32 per cent say the number is about right and just two per cent of respondents to the survey would like to see more. At a time when many shops are closing, bookmakers are one of the few trades opening up new businesses on the high street. Ladbrokes recently applied to open a betting shop in a former Game store in Wolverhampton. It would take the total number of bookies in the city centre to nine. It would be the firms second branch in the heart of the city and the 10th in the Wolverhampton area. The city centre also has three Coral betting shops, a Paddy Power, a BetFred, a Wilf Gilbert and a William Hill. In a letter to Wolverhampton City Council, Haris Kasuji from Leeds-based RR Planning consultants, acting for Ladbrokes, said that betting offices are bright and busy. BetFred will replace the former Millets outdoor clothing store in Dudley High Street, which has been empty for two years.

Wolverhamptons centre is getting help from Mary Portas

Growth
Coral are also planning to open a shop in the same road while even a former post office in Wordsley Green Shopping Centre in Stourbridge has now become a bookmakers. Betting shops are doing very well with the rise of online gambling and virtual sports sites. William Hill reported a growth of 27 per cent online and a rise of six per cent from its 2,390 UK betting shops in 2012. Last year Labours deputy leader Harriet Harman admitted that gambling liberalisation introduced by the former Labour government was a mistake and had ruined peoples lives. A majority of our readers, 51.9 per cent, would also like to see fewer charity shops while only 3.3 per cent of people would want to see more. Paul Bennett, president of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, said: Charity shops and betting shops play their part and are important for the local economy. But all town centres need a good variety of all types of shop. Richard Royal, spokesman for Ladbrokes said: There isnt a particular increase in betting shops in recent years, and they have halved since the 1960s. They have simply become more prominent due to the last Labour Governments removal of the demand test, allowing betting shops to open nearer to one another based on economic demand rather than arbitrary geographical distances. Dudley market trader Deb Brownlee said she was not concerned by the number of charity shops in the town centre. Charity shops these days are so well presented it is difficult to tell the difference.

Declined
Town centres in the West Midlands have declined over the past 10 years as more and more people have moved to shopping online or in out of town retail parks. More than 87 per cent of E&S readers say their towns are either much worse or somewhat worse than they were at the start of the 21st century. Only seven per cent say the town centres are the same as they were in 2003 while just 4.5 per cent say they are somewhat better and only 1.2 per cent much better. Our question about how towns are faring resulted in 48.2 per cent saying they were struggling and 34.7 per cent saying they were not as good as they used to be. Just over 11 per cent said town centres were adequate for their needs while only 5.1 per cent said they were good. And there is an overwhelming consensus about the top priority to make town centres better attracting and maintaining a good standard of shops. That aim is easier said than done in todays economic climate. Latest figures show that Dudley and West Bromwich have the largest number of empty units in the country for medium sized towns while Wolverhampton and Walsall have featured in the top 10 for large towns or cities.

Merry Hill is the most popular destination for clothes shopping That means that, by necessity and also through convenience, shoppers are being drawn to out-of-town centres. Our poll reveals that more people now go to Merry Hill, which boasts free car parking, for clothes shopping than their own local town centre shops. Many areas are undergoing major regeneration, such as in West Bromwich, which is it hoped will lead to a high street revival. In Wolverhampton, council and city cen-

West Bromwich has among the highest rate for empty shops October, was hailed a big success. Stalls offering crafts and cottage-style trades will be set up on The Bridge. Walsalls challenge is typical of that of all our traditional town and city centres. Independent figures show its shop vacancy rate is around 29 per cent, with more than 80 empty units in the heart of the borough. But, while town centres struggle, out of town malls like Merry Hill and the Gallagher Retail Park appear to be flourishng.

tre bosses have won support from the government to trial the proposals of TV star Mary Portas. Students and entrepreneurs were invited to apply for a share of a 50,000 package with the keys to vacant shops rent free for six months. Walsall failed in its bid to become a Portas Pilot but council chiefs decided to go ahead with their own proposals anyway. A night market will return to Walsall in March after the inaugural one, held in

Tomorrow: Your Transport on bus services, the state of roads and your verdict on HS2

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Express & Star

Comments by readers on feelings about their home towns

Wolverhampton
centre is a complete tip drunks weeing, sick on the floor, smashed windows, empty shops and a glut of pound shops and bookies. Wolverhampton desperately needs an injection of money to smarten up. Too many cheap 1 type shops. I have witnessed the decline of Wolverhampton town centre over the last 10-15 years. In recent years do not go near the place as the shops have nothing to offer and the town is dangerous at night. My local town is Bilston. I rarely go in to Wolverhampton for shopping. But Bilston does now lack more of the quality shops. For example there is nowhere to buy DVDs or CDs unless you go to the big supermarkets.
I am Wolverhampton born and bred and the city

Merry Hill has been a disaster for the people of

Dudley

Rescue our
Report by DANIEL WAINWRIGHT
daniel.wainwright@expressandstar.co.uk

Dudley, but the council thinks pretending it is a town centre makes everything all right. I will never shop at Merry Hill that would be feeding the cancer that is killing our community. I know people who shop there reluctantly, saying there is nowhere else to go. All towns are suffering, but Dudley is the only one where the council has thrown in the towel and said it is not a strategic centre. Forget tourism; Dudley needs large shops, Next, TK Maxx. The decline in Dudley, and indeed Wolverhampton, is a disgrace. There are shops left empty for years, not just months, but no initiative to get people in. Merry Hill is a very good shopping experience and local town centres need to up their game with more independent shops offering more unique goods.

BETTER shops would save the traditional high street and bring people back from out of town centres, the Express & Star Your Say Survey reveals today.
More than 65 per cent of people say improving the quality of the shops on offer would persuade them to shop locally.
And a significant figure, around 26 per cent, say that cheaper parking is their main priority when it comes to visiting shops.
Our survey also reveals that out of town centres such as Merry Hill which offer free parking now take more than one third of the trade in the region. While online retailers continue to grow, at the expense of high street names such as HMV Jes, sops and Blockbuster, the internet has yet to overtake the traders operating out of shops and is the first choice for 16.3 per cent of our readers. The figure also includes those who use catalogues as their main tool for shopping. This should give comfort to retailers in shops who are able to offer face to face customer service and give people expert advice on their purchases. Traditional market traders also face a fight to attract our custom. Only 2.8 per cent look to the market first when it comes to clothes shopping, according to the Your Say survey.

Sandwell days. It had everything you can mention in terms of shops etc. But since then focus seems to be on West Bromwich which is unfair. It took 47 years to get a tunnel built, by which time Tipton had already died. The same thing has happened to Wednesbury both were once thriving towns. West Bromwich at present is extremely poor. Thank God the regeneration of the area is taking place. I hope new traders go there and the area returns to the popular town it used to be many, many years ago, when the likes of M&S were there. I love my town of Wednesbury, and shop there every weekend, but it does need a couple of big names, like Bodycare, Wilkinsons, Argos and Primark, to help it thrive, rather than charity shops, bookies and hairdressers.

The town of Tipton used to be thriving pre

Sandwell

Walsall
building Crown Wharf and new development made things worse. They should encourage businesses to fill ALL vacant shops first, regardless of size and only consider new ones if new businesses want to open. The centre needs to attract people with a car and money to spend and create more of a social mix like there used to be. More affluent people go to Sutton or Birmingham to shop, eat and for entertainment. Fix smelly drains and broken pavements, make parking cheaper (Sutton is 40p an hour), provide better shops rather than pound shops and common chains branches and support small niche traders. Darlaston has been ruined by Asda and the council, Walsall is ruined by rip-off parking charges and it is the same in Wolverhampton. Merry Hill, Gallagher and Bentley Bridge retail parks have free parking.
The council complains about empty shops but

Optimism
Despite the general decline there is still optimism that town centres can be revived and even thrive again. Phil Barnett, chairman of Wolverhampton Business Champions, said: Shopping centres are doing a lot of work to attract new businesses in. The survey shows that shoppers will come in if there are the big high street names they are looking for. This isnt going to happen overnight and town centres are in for the long haul. Adrian Bailey, West Bromwich West MP and chairman of Parliaments Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, added: Retail habits are changing. I think town centres have to change as well. I still believe that quality shops, if they remain located in town centres, will draw people in. But town centres will increasingly be seen as places to go for leisure and entertainment if they have the right mix of venues and restaurants. But figures concerning the lack of use of traditional markets have prompted Express & Star historian Carl Chinn to call for action. He said: Its a real concern for me. Markets are part of the appeal of a town centre and I despair at the lack of action of successive governments to do enough about this. Vibrant, boistrous markets are not just about selling goods, they are places for socialising and entertainment. Thriving town centres are about more than trade, they are about social well-being. Out of town centres such as Bentley Bridge in

Traders are just as concerned for the future of town centres as shoppers. Our survey today shows 65.7 per cent of readers think better shops would convince them to shop locally with another 26.2 per cent needing cheaper parking. Aaron Sheldon, director of jewellers B Jangles, Market Place, Wednesbury said people complain about numbers of takeaways but: They have very few overheads, and that is why we see so many. Often you can go in Asda and the new clothes are cheaper. If the government helped the small business, it would

help our high streets. Richard Marshall, Bearwood Traders Association chairman, said: A lot of people tell me that Bearwood is full of charity shops and fast food outlets, when in fact only there are only four charity shops and only six per cent takeaways. So that is a very small number when you think we have 340 shops. People perceive that the high street has a high number of empty units when in fact we are only running at six per cent empty units at the moment. Therefore I think when we look at surveys we

have to remember this is a perception of our high streets, and our role as a traders association is to get the information about the reality out there. We are slap bang in the middle of the Bull Ring, Merry Hill and the new shopping park in West Bromwich, and we are going to have to compete. But unfortunately the big names do not want to come to our high street, and that is a problem. People feel they cant do all their shopping on their local high street, and we have to show them that they can.

Staffordshire
both central and in the surrounding areas that would benefit greatly from a revamped town centre with big name stores such as Next, M&S etc. Instead we have to travel to retail parks in Stafford, Walsall and Tamworth to get any decent local shopping. Cannock should be doing everything it can to attract these retailers to the town centre. Cannock betting shops and charity shops, pubs and cafes. More shops are needed in Stafford. The council needs to look at reducing rents to encourage shops. Traffic flow desperately needs to be improved in and around Stafford. Weekends are terrible, when people make their way into the town to do their shopping. A park and ride is needed. The town also needs a bus station and cheaper bus fares into the town centre.
Cannock has a big and ever-growing population

Wednesfield are the most popular choices for 22.2 per cent of people seeking entertainment, such as the cinema and bowling alleys. One of the benefits that comes with going to out of town centres is the lure of free parking. However, the majority of people, 35.3 per cent of our respondents, say they now rarely go out at all. Local pubs, despite many struggling to stay afloat due to competition from the supermarkets, still pull in more than one in five people for a pint. Attracting people into town and city centres has long been an aim of councils across the region and the only way to afford to do so is to bring in a private partner who is prepared to invest the money.

But there has been major disappointment with the decision to abandon longawaited plans for Wolverhamptons 300 million Summer Row shopping centre, leaving the city council working to attract new private investment in the area in the form of offices, shops, hotels and housing.

Safer
Our survey reveals that almost 44 per cent per cent of people believe the biggest priority for town centres is a better shopping environment while more than 18 per cent believe there should be efforts made to provide more jobs. A further 14.1 per cent want cheaper car parks while 13 per cent want their town centres to be safer.

Family-friendly measures would please 8.5 per cent. Only just over two per cent of people have concerns about public transport links into town centres. Major supermarkets have changed the face of town centres such as Walsall and Rugeley and Sainsburys will shortly be under construction in Wolverhampton while Tesco is also set to revive the former Royal Hospital. Three hundred jobs will be created in Rugeley when Tesco opens its new superstore in Power Station Road later this year. Despite the investment and jobs promised by supermarkets, a narrow majority of E&S readers believes they do not help to improve our towns. According to our survey more than four in 10 people do not believe that

Express & Star

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

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Repeat of call to cut the cost of parking in city centre

high streets
Town has had time to invest
Stephen Briscoe wants to support local shops but says his town centre needs regenerating. Stephen Briscoe took part in the Your Say Survey because he is so concerned about the future of his town centre. He admits to visiting Merry Hill because of its convenience, but also tries to get into Dudley as much as he can so that he is supporting his local shops. Stephen, aged 47, who lives in Buffery Road, Dudley, said: I like to shop in Dudley town centre as it still has stores like Iceland, the Co-op and Peacocks as well as some decent independent shops. But the town hasnt got everything I want, and so I have to go to Merry Hill to get the rest. You cant do a big weekly shop in the town centre, which is why places like the new big Tesco and the Sainsburys at Merry Hill tend to do well.

Visit
The married contract cleaner says he likes to use the cinema at Castle Gate, and he does visit local pubs, but says the town needs regenerating. There has been plenty of time over the last 20 years for the council to invest in the town, but it hasnt done, and it has gone the other way, he said. Now Dudley has got one of the highest to-let rates in the country, and what we are seeing coming to the town now is more betting and loan shops as well as take-aways, and this has changed the culture of the town. Stephen says Dudley has plenty of cafes which do help to draw people to the town centre, adding: All Dudley needs is one or two good shops. When we had Beatties and Woolworths they brought a certain type of shopper to the town. Stephen agrees
supermarkets are having a positive difference while around 37 per cent believe that they are. Yet with just over one fifth, 21.5 per cent, undecided on the benefits or disadvantages of supermarkets, it shows the likes of Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons can still win people over if they have the right project. The community living around the Royal Hospital site in Wolverhampton and the general consensus among residents in West Bromwich is that the investment provided by Tesco is going to be beneficial in the long run. In West Bromwich Tesco has funded the new 10m police station and was the first to sign up for the 200m New Square development. Primark, Next, JD Sports, Bank, Arcadia, Nandos and Prezzo, will all open at the site as well as

Councillor Sparks, chairman of the Local Government Association Transport Board, said: Dudley and Sandwell were the last metropolitan local authorities to introduce parking charges. The reason why we had to introduce parking charges was that central Government insisted we introduced them, because if we did not, they were going to cut our transport grant. So we reluctantly introduced parking charges and then increased them. We have had continually to increase them since, in order to make up for the cuts we have had to our budgets. We have very little freedom to manoeuvre. But the essential point is that if you have an overall pressure on your budget, it is inevitably going to influence your decision as to whether you increase car parking charges. Most people will be reluctant to increase car parking charges. Some people will not be, but most people will be and therefore you would only do it reluctantly. In Wolverhampton fees for parking at night were introduced in 2010 and were met with opposition from restaurant owners and traders. The fees were eventually scrapped and the city council has since reduced its parking fees and frozen them for two years. The cost of an hours parking fell from 60p to 50p at School Street, Market and Fold Street car parks last April while 13-week season ticket fees at Oxford Street and Church Lane fell from 90 to 80. Stafford Council has frozen its car parking charges since 2007 and is using this fact as it tries to negotiate to get more national chains to move into the town centre. But the councils leader Mike Heenan believes that rents are as much of an issue as parking charges.

Henry Carver with the E&S Your Say Survey Henry Carver, chairman of the Wolverhampton Business Group, received a copy of our dossier of results from the Your Say Survey and said it showed peoples views on town centres were the same as his. The managing director of Carvers Building Supplies has campaigned for cheaper car parking and other measures to improve the city. He says he is encouraged that the E&S survey mirrors the priorities of himself and his colleagues For years we have reported on grand plans for regeneration in shopping centres across the region, but, at the same time, there has been a drop in the number of big name stores. The likes of TK Maxx have left Wolverhampton city centre and moved to Bentley Bridge Retail Park, where parking is free. Meanwhile, the Merry Hill Centre in Brierley Hill continues to thrive but places like Dudley and West Bromwich have the highest number of empty shops for town centres of their size in the country, while developments like the Riverside project in Stafford promise hundreds of jobs. Our survey shows two-thirds of people believe car parking charges in our towns are either far too expensive or a bit dear. In 2011, Mr Carvers Wolverhampton Business Group gathered a petition of more than 3,500 names calling for a city-wide cut in parking charges. Councillors were reluctant to do so amid concerns that drivers will abandon privately-owned car parks and clog up the council-run ones instead. He submitted the petition to Wolverhampton City Council calling for charges to fall to 50p an hour on council-run car parks. Fees have since been cut at council-owned car parks but not by as much as Mr Carver was hoping.

Rents
He said: The first thing that really is an issue and has been for some time, which is out of the control of the council, is the level of rent in the town, said Councillor Heenan, who was a founding member of Staffords Chamber of Commerce. The rents in the main street and throughout the town have been kept fairly high in recent times. There hasnt been any reduction in them, but I think that is about to happen. Im hoping that will encourage more people to come in to the town. Council parking charges in Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport are also being frozen. Institute of Advanced Motorists chief executive Simon Best said councils up and down the country were making a fortune from parking. He added: Councils are making record-breaking profits from parking, while cutting road safety spending on life-saving services such as, education for young drivers, cycle training, and safe-routes-to-schools schemes. Meanwhile private operators have begun reducing fees. NCP in Freer Street, Walsall, introduced a 3 all-day charge last summer to replace the original 7.50 fee, along with free spaces on a Sunday. The private operators also brought in a similar price in Station Street in the town centre in the run-up to Christmas. The company is now also looking at slashing the fees to 1 for drivers who park for up to an hour, and 2 for those using the car park for two hours or less. Fees have also been cut at the Wulfrun Centre and Pipers Row in Wolverhampton by NCP . The changes in Walsall have helped spark a reduction on council-owned car parks which have introduced 3 a day spaces.

Urgent
The call from respondents to the E&S Survey for better shops was also seized upon by the builders merchant as the need for urgent action to recover from the disappointment of the 300 million Summer Row shopping centre scheme, which was scrapped in 2011 after more than seven years planning. The aim was to buy up and knock down around 200 businesses but the long wait for compulsory purchase orders to be enacted meant many closed, leaving derelict sites in their wake owned by lots of different people, rather than the city council. Mr Carver said: Investors do not want to see derelict buildings. The best thing to do is to clear derelict sites and create a sort of blank canvas by grassing over the area and giving the message that the area is open for business. The variety and choice in Wolverhampton is terrible compared with the likes of Merry Hill. TK Maxx decided to leave the city centre and go to Bentley Bridge where there is free car parking. People dont want to be ripped off on car parking. Somewhere like the Touchwood Centre in Solihull gets that balance right. High parking charges stop people investing. Ninder Johal, president of Sandwell Chamber of Commerce said: I think what all councils should do is find a balance between income generation and make sure that the town centres continue to thrive. He added: I think the economy comes first, I think jobs come first. I think the more people we have employed, the more likely they are to spend and the more people spend, the more chances are that people will start businesses.

Resident Stephen Briscoe in Dudley High Street, by the outdoor market that if the shopping environment park in the centre of Dudley if they were to improve, then it would give are just going in for a cup of tea, he the town a lift and also says parking said. I think the solution would be is a big issue when Merry Hill is free. to have free parking and to have a car People object to paying even 50p to boot-style market.

an Odeon cinema. Overall the scheme will create around 2,000 jobs. Jonathan Simpson, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said: We see ourselves as a huge force for good. Weve got fantastic new stores on the way and were bringing great qualtiy food and products to people who want convenient shopping.

Improve
Weve helped to improve local high streets by working with local traders to increase footfall. In West Bromwich weve worked with Sandwell Council and provided community facilities so we believe we have a very a positive effect on town centres.

Parking fees remain a cause of concern and controversy and increases are still likely due to councils being faced with budget cuts. Among our respondents 34.8 per cent of people think charges are far too expensive while a further 32.6 per cent class them as a bit dear. Only 29.7 per cent of people think parking charges are reasonable and 2.8 per cent believe they are cheap. Charges are likely to go up in Cannock Chase from April with increases also planned in Dudley as a way of coping with cuts in government funding. The leader of Dudley Council, Councillor David Sparks, told a committee of MPs recently that parking charges were influenced by the pressure on council budgets.