Angus towns seeing shoots of recovery

INVESTMENT: Demand for premises improving

Since the economic downturn, most towns in Scotland have struggled to attract investment into their centres.

The historic towns in Angus were not immune from the effects of this slump.

Since late 2013, however, and despite the downturn in the oil market and many political pressures, demand has slowly improved within the commercial property sector and the Angus towns are beginning to see shoots of recovery and improvement in levels of tenant demand.

In a challenging market, the temptation has been towards development outwith town centres.

With retail parks and supermarket shopping dominant along with the everincreasing threat of internet “armchair” shopping over traditional trolley pushing, it is easy for analysts to be negative over the prospects for town centres.

Banks such as Clydesdale, RBS and Bank of Scotland have closed branches, leaving more gaps in the high streets.

The local authority has sought to assist, and the updated Angus Local Plan gives further clarity on the vision of the 21st Century town centre by safeguarding retail use while expanding the potential list of occupiers to allow more investment from alternative users such as cafe/restaurants, takeaways, office users and other service providers.

The drivers for recovery have come from a combination of community engagement backed up with support from the local authority to help deliver growth.

Community groups such as Aspire Arbroath, Kirrie Talks and Future Forfar have held public meetings to speak to local people about what they want within their towns, not only from a retail point of view but from a wider leisure and tourism angle.

These groups are now working to act on the findings through engagement, in setting strategic goals for improving services and encouraging investment.

Special events such as the Montrose Music Festival, which has seen acts such as Deacon Blue and The Beach Boys in recent years, have helped promote the town and bring a much-needed boost to the local economy.

Providing new activities and staging such events will, it is hoped, lead to improved visitor numbers and thereby encourage more investment.

One such idea is the recent acquisition of the former Montrose Swimming Pool by Montrose Playhouse Project, which is seeking to convert the building to a community cinema.

This all will take time and, at present, the larger commercial developments ongoing remain the likes of the new Aldi supermarket in Montrose.

Statistics from commercial property website CoStar show that, despite an improvement in the number of commercial sales and lettings in the past 18 to 24 months, average asking prices and rents continue to fall.

A quick walk along any of the high streets in the main Angus towns would still tell a tale of many vacant properties.

The way forward is encouraging more community engagement and investment into making town centres attractive places to visit with car-parking and pleasant and safe environments.

Events like MoFest, which brought The Beach Boys to Montrose this year, are good promotion tools.

Gavin Russell can see reasons to be cheerful in high streets around the county.