Our Town Centre. The National Picture Stats Government Response

Our Town Centre

The National Picture

Stats

Government Response

Trends

• Retailers rationalising

• Multi channelling

• Internet

• Supermarkets

The Local Picture

• Footfall survey

• Public consultation on indoor market

• Visitor / shopper survey (Oct 2011)

• Business survey (Oct 2011)

• Information on premises ownership and availability

Our Town Centre

Source: CACI 2008

The wider drive time again shows strong representation of Wealthy Achievers highlighting the need for Wrexham’s retail centre to attract shoppers from a wide catchment

Town Centre Strategy

• 2008 – 2012

• Delivering Retail Led Renaissance

• (CEDO/26/08)

The 5 C’s – Competition

• Differentiation from our competition

• Attracting investment

• New offer

• Unique Selling Point

The 5 C’s – Character

• Public realm

• Heritage/buildings

• Public works of art

• Improvements

The 5 C’s – Catchment

• Branding

• Place marketing

• Destination management

The 5 C’s – Choice

• Independents

• Multiples

• Key attractors

• Markets

The 5 C’s – Convenience

• Accessibility within the town

• Accessibility to the town

• Car

• Bike

• Bus

• Rail

• Walking

Strengths

• Good mix of retail (independent / national)

• Wide catchment area

• Car parking

• Compact town centre

• Active Town Centre Forum

• Active Nightsafe

• Radio partnership

Strengths

• Bus station

• Disabled access

• Good return for investors

• Eagles Meadow

Weaknesses

• Signage

• Railway station – not in ‘town’

• Building stock is not purpose built retail

• Anti social behaviour

• Central Railway station poor environment

• High rents / rates

• Remote landlords / fragmented ownership

Opportunities

• Leisure growth in town centre (low cost) • Increased events programme • Hippodrome site • Markets – growth • Increase diversity of evening economy –

restaurants • Coach Towns • Train local workforce

Threats

• Recession – under economy • Internet • Barriers to borrowing • Negative perception • Increase in retail outside town centre

footprint • Competition elsewhere • Offices move to out of town locations

Next Steps

• The existing Town Centre Strategy and Action Plan (Retail Renaissance)

• The Review = September 2012 to March 2013

• The priority areas that Scrutiny Committee could focus on

• The process of choosing which areas Scrutiny Committee actually focuses on

Simple Assessment Tool

Clear Vision for Wrexham Town Centre

Which issues should be scrutiny committee focus or ?

How important are the issues?

What are the issues?

What are the evaluation criteria we should use to test the relative importance/issues

EVALUATION CRITERIA

EWOULD HELP TO ATTRACT SHOPPERS (INCREASE FOOTFALL)

4

3

2

1

AIMPROVE THE APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN

BIMPROVES THE PERCEPTION AND/OR REALITY OF COMMUNITY SAFETY

CIMPROVES ACCESSIBILITY

DWOULD HELP ATTRACT NEW BUSINESSES TO INVEST (REDUCE VOIDS)

SCORINGVery High = 4High = 3Low = 2Very Low = 1

FWOULD HELP TO CREATE JOBS

GINCREASE THE RANGE OF ACTIVITY IN THE TOWN CENTRE

HIMPROVES THE RETAIL RANKING OF THE TOWN CENTRE

EXAMPLEISSUES TEST AGAINST EVALUATION CRITERIA

(A-H) SCORE

Stop ‘boy racers’ A = 2B = 4C = 1D = 2E = 2F = 1G = 1H = 1_____ 14

*Do this for each issue (add weighing to evaluation criteria if desired) and see which issues have the biggest impact – focus on these)