It has to be fully car dependent, low rent and selling last years fashion style rubbish.Debenhams building in city centre would be far better location.
But county council wouldn’t get any rates income.
They are in competition with each other.A joint retail strategy involving both local authorities seems eminently sensible to me.
Debenhams building in city centre would be far better location.
But county council wouldn’t get any rates income.
Ironically M&S is thriving due to the lack of mid-price competition now.Debenhams building not suitable for what they want - as per previous poster - out of town centre with lots of free parking and flogging last year's stuff. Suits the retailers who don't want to feature old stuff on their website or flagship stores and flog it at low margin in cheap retail centre instead.
City Council has its head in the sand - still trying to maintain rates income at levels of 20 years ago when internet has made traditional town centre shopping more or less obsolete. Room for likes of Pennys at one end and BT at other end but everything in the middle - Debenhams, Next, etc goosed. Can't see M&S maintaining their city centre store for much longer either.
How it even got this far is a mystery to me.The hysteria from councillors about the Planning Regular kind of sums up why we needed one in the first place.
The regulator had a fairly straightforward role - check proposed plans to make sure they're consistent with national policies, and that they're properly justified by evidence.
In this case, they're not saying no to the potential for the tacky low pay outlet centre, they're simply saying the work hasn't been done by the council to justify it by way of a joint retail strategy. I think most reasonable people could expect that such a strategy would not be able to justify a proposal like this.
Similar to their objections to the Build to Rent restrictions in Dublin. They're saying the council haven't done the evidence base to show what the implications of the move would be on housing delivery.
Even if they did manage to hammer through this zoning, I'd be putting good money on it not getting past ABP.
How this whole thing has come about and is being pushed is incredibly suspicious, and it's hard not to think some people are down for a major payday if it comes off. Some FOI requests could be very revealing.