Regeneration for better...or worse?

10:40am Friday 5th September 2008

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By James Wallin »

THE £215m regeneration of Regent Place could cost shopkeepers in the area their livelihood.

Worried retailers say that with rents rising and prime properties being quickly snapped up they fear for their businesses.

Shopkeepers in the area around Granville Street car park say they have been kept in the dark about the plans and the first they knew about the contract being signed was when they opened yesterday’s Adver.

Alison Smith is the owner of Mail Boxes Etc, on Commercial Road. She has been at the shop for seven years, and bought the franchise three years ago.

She said: “This is a growing business and this is an ideal location for us – near to the town centre but also in the commercial area. I have been pro-active and have been looking for properties but the problem is that i just don’t know what is going to happen.

“Rumours fly around but I wasn’t told anything official about this decision. There’s been nothing telling me what the timetable is or what is going to happen to my business.

“I just don’t know whether I will be able to find a shop I can afford in a location that works for my business and that is a real worry.”

Simon and Gillian Hancock, from the Iced Lilly flower and cake shop, in Morley Street, received a letter from Modus Properties telling them about the announcement of the contract 24 hours after it had been publicly announced.

Simon said: “As someone who has lived in Swindon all his life of course I welcome the development of the town centre – anyone can see it needs it, but from the point of view of a business I think this could have been handled a lot better. We’ve been kept completely in the dark, which makes it almost impossible to grow as a business.

“There’s no point in spending money on a property if you don’t know when you’re going to be turfed out of it.

“It’s all very well getting the big boys, like Debenhams and House of Fraser, into Swindon but how is that going to make it different from anywhere else?

“What makes somewhere like Bath such an attractive place to shop is all the independent places and they’re exactly the ones who are being driven out here.”

Gillian agreed: “People aren’t going to come to Swindon for the same old shops they can get anywhere. But this could see shops like ours being driven out of business.”

Jonathan Brown, manager of Swin City comic book shop, said: “We have worked at marketing our business and making sure people know where we are. I think we’ve finally got to that point but suddenly we find we’ve got to move.

“There’s been no communication so it’s been very difficult to make plans. From our point of view this hasn’t been handled very well.”

'A major step forward'
COUNCIL leader Rod Bluh, said the Regent Place project is extremely good news for Swindon.

He said: “A major step forward has been taken in the regeneration of this town. It may not be the biggest scheme in the country but it is the most important in that the retail half of this project is the focal point for it.

“Without that element the other parts of this scheme just wouldn’t fit together. This is great news. To deliver this deal and have talk of the college scheme and the Union Square scheme on the horizon shows that Swindon is really bucking national trends when it comes to thinking big in difficult economic times.

“This is a real vote of confidence in this town. It is investment in our town where schemes elsewhere are being cancelled. What this illustrates is the inherent strength of our town. The whole point about this is that although we have signed this agreement the retail elements they refer to will not be up and running until the worst of the economic downturn is out of the way.”