Agenda item

The report of the Executive Manager – Transformation is attached.

Catherine Evans, Service Manager for Transformation and Caroline Saxton, Economic Growth Officer delivered a presentation to accompany the appendices provided with the report. The report and presentation sets out data relating to the health of our high streets in Rushcliffe and the support the Council is providing to ensure they continue to thrive.

The Service Manager provided the Group with some background information on what the Council was doing to support local towns and villages, explaining the function of the growth boards in West Bridgford, Bingham and Radcliffe on Trent and more recently East Leake and Fairham. In addition, the Service Manager informed the Group of the success of the Council’s Shop Front Improvement Grant scheme, a match funding facility available to all high street businesses across Rushcliffe.

The Economic Growth Officer explained some of the work completed by the Economic Growth team within the towns and villages, and how the team support the growth boards as well as non-growth board areas, providing examples:  Melton Road Christmas lights and the West Bridgford Way. Further support is being developed, including a communication plan, digital growth and further work with the growth boards to support town and village events to increase their local footfall.

The Economic Growth Officer provided the key findings from a 2016 Kerching retail review and explained that town and village centres in Rushcliffe are performing well despite the challenging environment. The Kerching report highlighted the following:

·         Low vacancy rates

·         Provision of services e.g. Hairdressers, estate agents is higher than the national average

·         Comparison shopping (non-essential items) is lower than the national average

·         Leakage rates for Rushcliffe is high, the main causes of this being the lack of comparison shopping, as well as proximity to Nottingham and larger towns.

The Economic Growth Officer added that for the first time ever in any of Kerching’s reports, there was not a single business in any of the villages reviewed which were rated as red according to their traffic light system. The only shops rated red were vacant shops. Kerching described the lack of red coded businesses as unprecedented.

The Service Manager presented the key features of a town centre using a model for future high streets and how Rushcliffe compares, more detailed information was provided in the Grimsey review as an appendix to the report.

The key features include:

·         Accessibility including wifi, parking, cycle storage and public transport links

·         A mixed offer of shops, services, cafes and public work space

·         Regular activities and events to attract people to the area

·         The provision of community services e.g. library, doctors, Council contact point

In addition, the Service Manager reported that Rushcliffe town centres all have a high street retailer e.g. Co-op, Boots, all have parking provision, all areas are delivering some events, mainly seasonal e.g. summer fairs or Christmas light switch on and all areas have social media presence. However, only two of the seven towns and villages have a bank or building society.

The Group asked specific questions in relation to leakage and what the Council is doing to ensure the vibrancy of our towns and villages continues and whether there are triggers that could alert any detrimental changes in the future. The Group provided examples of bank closures and lack of ATM machines as having a negative effect, particularly on the older population or retailers that rely on cash transactions. The Executive Manager – Communities explained that leakage is difficult to influence as spending habits are changing in response to technology, retail spending is moving more online or to larger towns and cities, this also applies to banking facilities too, the success of smaller towns is to keep residents in the area.

The Group suggested whether the Council’s planning policy could have an influence on landlords, so that A1 retail remains sustainable. The Executive Manager – Communities explained that mechanisms are in place within the planning policy and Neighbourhood Plans to defend things that towns don’t want.

It was RESOLVED that:

·         The Group note the report provided by the Economic Growth and Planning Policy teams, and welcome the successful vibrancy of Rushcliffe communities, defying the downward trend in many other communities, highlighting the need to monitor trends and ensure continued success.

·         The Group provide items for future scrutiny as outlined in the Work Programme.