Retail expert says leaders will need to be ‘bold’
DEPENDS ON ‘VISIONARIES’
A RETAIL expert has provided insight into how two town centres in Nottinghamshire could be rejuvenated after the coronavirus pandemic.
Bill Grimsey, who is based in London, is a retired retailer who has held senior positions at businesses including Tesco, Wickes, and Park’n’shop – Hong Kong’s leading supermarket chain. He visited Retford and Worksop earlier this month to share thoughts on how the towns could be improved.
He pointed out how the approach to bringing visitors into the towns should not be entirely business based and added that the local authority would need to be “bold” to make the towns more attractive.
Mr Grimsey, 68, has said he feels the north Nottinghamshire towns should look to reshape themselves in an approach that doesn’t solely focus on businesses.
He said: “Whilst I was walking around Retford, I thought the town had a jewel in it with its market place where there’s the town hall building. That’s where I would start. I would not have the market there, though – I’d move that closer the high street and I would turn the square and hall into a library that has hot desks and meeting rooms. A coffee shop would do well there, too.
“I’d relocate the pound shops around there to another part of the town and turn it into a culinary destination.
“People could dine al fresco in the summer and the space could be used for events in the winter season.
“In Worksop, I would consider moving the centre of the town closer to the canal because I think it would make the place a lot more attractive and more of a feature than the current high street.
“The council would need to buy some of the buildings around there and a canal marina would be nice too with somewhere serving food.
“Of course this would all cost money, but when we get to 2100 we want people to look back and say 80 years ago we had visionaries who helped change things.”
Mr Grimsey has produced two nationally recognised reports on the state of British high-streets entitled The Grimsey Reviews 1 and 2 and also contributed to a recently published Covid-19 supplement for town centres that looked at how the virus has accelerated changes in the high street. He said: “I think c o ronav i r u s helped people smell the fresh air a bit and realise that if we focus on local produce and heritage to get people in town centres, they will want to spend money there.
“The outcomes of plans to improve these places are driven by the local authority and the leadership. They need to get the data together and the funding so they can compete with other towns and people will visit.
“The most important thing is for the local authority and businesses to form town centre commissions and produce detailed long-term plans that can be sold to the community. Once they’ve done that they’ll need to look at how they can finance it. They need to be bold.”
Sally Gillborn, chief executive of North Notts BID, said: “We were incredibly excited to welcome Bill to north Nottinghamshire as a respected voice on revitalising town centres.
“As expected, he provided innovative ideas on how the BID and Bassetlaw District Council can improve the local area to increase footfall and simultaneously improve community connectivity and wellbeing.”
Councillor Simon Greaves, leader of Bassetlaw District Council, said: “Inviting a nationally recognised expert on the future of the high street was a great initiative by the BID. The council already has a number of initiatives in the pipeline from a strategic point of view with proposals aligned to the Local Plan, town centre-focused Masterplans and Neighbourhood Plans that reimagine how our town centres will look in years to come.”