We must ensure town has a healthy future
THE fitness of Southport town centre to support local business has been put to the test with a new “Health Check”.
The report by Nexus Planning, a team of planning and regeneration consultants based in London, shows how Southport has changed in recent years – and provides some evidence for what it must do to improve what is has to offer.
It fails to mention much of the work already taking place to vastly improve Southport as well as some of the real success stories in our town.
The study points to the £3.5m Flannels, Sports Direct, USC and Everlast gym development on Tulketh Street as a welcome addition to our town centre since the last study took place in 2015. But it also noted the closure of stores such as Debenhams, Beales, HMV and others as evidence of the shrinking retail offering.
The Health Check shows that Southport had 13.6% of vacant town centre floorspace in 2011, rising to 15% by 2015 and reaching 18.7% by 2020, compared with the UK 2020 average of 10.6%.
The figures don’t tell the whole story, but they do suggest that change does need to happen.
The numbers give further impetus to the efforts of Southport Town Deal, which is putting together project bids for £25m regeneration funding from the Government, as well as a masterplan to guide future development and investment in our town.
One of the “Big Ideas” in the initial Town Deal proposals was the concept of shrinking the core town centre retail area.
These new figures may possibly fuel that debate.
This “consolidated retail core” would concentrate around the central section of Lord Street and Chapel Street, as well as Tulketh Street and King Street.
Lord Street North – the Northern Quarter – would be a mix of cafe, evening economy and living space, while Lord Street South would be a mix of cafe, leisure and living space.
The Health Check figures reveal a reduction of “comparison goods retailers” from 38.2% in 2015 to 27.8% in 2020, against a national average of 33.5%.
There are 199 comparison goods units within Southport town centre which are largely concentrated around Chapel Street.
Operators include clothes retailers, jewellers, charity shops, furniture shops, chemists, antique shops and florists. National multiples with a presence in Southport town centre include TK Maxx, New Look, River Island and Primark.
The report says: “While new retailers have been attracted to the centre in recent years – including Sports Direct and Flannels at Tulketh Street – recent losses have included BHS and H&M at Chapel Street, and Debenhams, Beales and Argos at Lord Street.
“These changes represent a significant loss.
“However, despite these changes there remains a reasonable range of major retailers present in Southport.
“Our survey found that comparison goods operators account for a smaller proportion of floorspace compared to the national average position. This is of concern as the comparison goods component of a higher order centre, such as Southport, will generally be an important part of its offer in drawing in visitors.
“Notwithstanding this, Southport town centre has been able to secure important investment at Tulketh Street in the past few years in the form of the Sports Direct/Flannels development, and it will be equally important to continue to attract further new retailers in the town in order that its offer evolves.”
However they did add that, in terms of choice for shoppers, “Southport’s fashion offer would benefit from improvement”.
They concluded: “Southport is in need of investment and improvement in order to provide for the reoccupation of vacant stock and to secure the centre’s ongoing relevance.”
There are plans in place to improve the town centre and the Nexus Health Check validates just how important they are.
Southport BID is already doing much work in this respect. It is supporting local independent businesses in the centre by launching its new Southport Independents website and ongoing Southport Indies campaign, while it has recently launched the Southport Gift Card to generate customer loyalty and support for local firms.
They have just secured £100,000 of Town Deal funding to match fund their significant financial commitment to new decorative lights along Lord Street.
The BID is also supporting the £2.5m Southport Townscape Heritage Project , a major National Lottery Heritage Fund scheme to transform the town centre through heritage-led regeneration and complementary activities.
The remit includes: structural and external repair of historic buildings, reinstatement of authentic architectural features (eg traditional shopfronts, windows), and work to bring vacant floor space in historic buildings back into use.
One area which has seen an improvement since 2015 is in leisure services (cafés, restaurants, hot food takeaways, pubs, bars, amusement arcades and hotels), which has risen from 23.9% to 28.7%, higher than the national average of 25.6%.
Financial and business services remain at 6.9%, also faring well.
Surprisingly, the report mentions nothing more about the many success stories here.
Southport town centre’s financial and business services includes Fletcher’s Solicitor’s on Hoghton Street, which has grown to more than 400 members of staff in its Southport and Manchester sites.
The town centre’s leisure success stories include the plans to transform Southport Market into a food, drink and events hub, which this month received £900,000 investment from Southport Town Deal funding.
Paulo No Mercado has just opened in one of the prime units while Blackhurst’s Butchers has revealed its ambition to be part of the scheme.
The transformation of the northern end of Lord Street into the Northern Quarter is also worth highlighting. The area is now thriving with huge investment from operators such as Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group, which has opened the new Lord Street Hotel, transformed the Bold Hotel and has opened Punch Tarmeys bar.
A number of new restaurants and bars now operate along the northern end of Lord Street, and now along Seabank Road and Bold Street.
The change of the corner unit on Nevill Street and Lord Street from Russell & Bromley into Bistrot Pierre is symptomatic of the changing face of this part of town from predominantly retail to predominantly leisure.
So Southport town centre has much to be proud of, and much to build on.
But there is no hiding that it does need investment and it does need change. Southport Townscape Heritage needs to improve the historic beauty and help bring empty units back into use on Lord Street and the roads leading off it.
The proposal for the £70m transformation of Southport Theatre and Convention Centre as well as ambitious plans to expand Southport Pleasureland and make it an indoor, all-year-round attraction, both bring exciting opportunities to attract millions of visitors and increase footfall for town centre businesses.
And Southport Town Deal has to focus on reinvigorating Southport town centre and improving its heritage to ensure it is fit for a bright future to add to its glittering past.