‘It’s not exactly a nice welcome to a city to see all this going on – it’s really depressing’

TOTAL DEMOLITION OF BROADMARSH CENTRE ‘EYESORE’ CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH FOR CITY SHOPPERS AND RESIDENTS

NOTTINGHAM shoppers have said they would welcome Government funding for the demolition of the former Broadmarsh Centre.

Nottingham City Council is seeking £20m from the Government to completely knock down the building.

The full demolition of the derelict shopping centre is a key part of the council’s vision to attract development and build a “mixed-use” scheme on the site.

The council has so far secured the funds to knock down the western part of the shopping centre but is awaiting confirmation of a Government grant before it can go forward with the rest of it.

We spoke to Nottingham shoppers about whether they thought a potential grant to dismantle the centre was a good idea.

Andre Topping, 28, has backed the plan and hopes to see more greenmany ery in the area.

He said “I definitely think that it would be a good idea to knock the whole thing down – the area needs to be opened up to more space.

“Some more greenery would be just what the place needs. I would be surprised if you found anybody that disagrees or doesn’t think that we need more space there and something nicer to look at.”

Alison Donaldson, 48, also thinks that tearing down the former shopping centre is the right way for the council to go.

She said: “Well we have the Victoria Centre already so, yes, I think that Broadmarsh just needs to come down now.”

If they cannot secure the £20m by October, the council will need to find millions of pounds elsewhere.

Another local shopper who asked to remain anonymous said: “You only have to look round here – the amount of shops that are empty.

“It wants demolishing and being made into an open space – definitely. “And it wants more money pumping in to get shops open to get people in to come and enjoy it.

“We’ve already got the Victoria Centre and I have lived here all my life and Broadmarsh never seemed to carry the same aesthetics as what the Vic Centre has, to be honest.”

Yet, not every shopper is as keen for Broadmarsh to become open space.

Some residents believe that for people visiting Nottingham by train the first thing they should be seeing is a shopping centre.

Steve Ramsell, 49, of Bhatia Best Solicitors, said: “I think that the area is in serious need of development, to be honest with you; I think it has been for a lot of years. “Our main train station into the city is down the road from it and yet the major shopping centre is a 20-minute walk up the road there.

“It’s an absolute eyesore at the moment.

“I have heard people walk past here and say this is awful, where are the shops, where is everything? “It’s not exactly a nice welcome to a city to see all this going on. It’s really depressing. “It’s just a complete shambles of a layout of the city, to be honest. “They seem to keep changing all of the road layouts around this way and pedestrianising all this here. “Now we’re talking about turning it into grassland for no particular use whatsoever for God knows how years until somebody finally puts some money into it and builds on it again.

“When you come out of the train station, if you go one way you end up at a housing estate and if you come the other way you end up on a building site – if it was me, I would get back on the train and go back.”

The Post revealed yesterday that world-renowned urban designer Thomas Heatherwick visited the Broadmarsh site last week.

Mr Heatherwick has been appointed alongside property development firm, Stories, to develop a framework for the condemned site.

He told the Post it was possible that an outline vision for the site could be drawn up by October.

He also spoke of the possibility that some parts of the remaining structure of the Broadmarsh Centre could be preserved, in a similar way to other urban projects such as the High Line in New York, where an elevated railway line had been turned into a public park.

I have heard people walk past and say ‘this is awful, where are the shops, where is everything?’

Steve Ramsell