Newport council backs city centre rescue plan (From South Wales Argus)

sounds like it's worked well in Swansea! prepare for an influx of "should have kept free parking" comments though

At last there seems to be a recognition by NCC that top down management for everything in the city isn't necessarily the best or most sustainable way. Hopefully the city centre businesses will give this proposal full support.

We also need a similar democratic devolution of local facilities to the communities they serve - this model has been adopted by other councils (such as Lambeth) and opens up new management partnerships and funding sources. This might - if conducted properly - save the likes of the Millennium and Underwood centres and other similarly threatened community facilities.

whatintheworld wrote:
sounds like it's worked well in Swansea! prepare for an influx of "should have kept free parking" comments though

....Or even "should have called the Dragons Newport RFC", or "no to the Gypsies!"

Sounds like shutting the gate after the horse had bolted. Not that many businesses left in Newport.

2006 - Labour were in power in Newport then, Why didn't they submit an application?
Where was Newport Unlimited the 'supposed' regeneration company?

It is a bit late now Newport has been on a decline since 2000 with Newport Councillors not being interested in its development or improvement unless it is in their interests and for their ward.

They cannot (or will not) see the big picture.

Fair point in regards to why didn't labour apply earlier, but the "'it's a bit late now attitude" isn't going to get newport very far.

Not sure what Bran Man's contribution is supposed to be -- is it the status quo is OK?? Perhaps some folks don't like strong views unless they coincide with Labour.views..

One way to smarten the place up cheaply is fine the litter louts like Caerphilly. Nobody can be proud of anywhere if it's litter strewn.

blackandamber wrote:
Sounds like shutting the gate after the horse had bolted. Not that many businesses left in Newport.

There are plenty of businesses in Newport. The city covers 70 square miles after all.

I need to look into a BID area in more detail to make a decision of where i stand. My question is why are they hiding the fact that a BID area means increased costs to local business. Not a bad thing if it increases city trade. Lets have an honest debate though.

.
NEWPORT COUNCIL HAS FAILED NEWPORT FOR YEARS.
WHAT ARE THEY ACTUALLY GOING TO DO KNOW???? --DON'T HOLD YOU'RE BREATH!!


THE ARTICLE BELOW WAS COPIED FROM SWA PUBLISHED IN 1987

Newport suffered its
heaviest defeat in the
war against
unemploymentand
recession.
The town was rocked by
more than 6,000
redundancies in twelve
months, most jobs being lost
from the massive slim-down .
at lIanwern steelworks •
The llanwern losses were
the town's Dunkirk - a bitter
defeat that the borough
council resolved should never
happen again.
Thecouncil responded by
drawing up what every
general needs - a strategy.
Newporfs Economic
DevelopmentStrategy was a
multi·million pound five-year
plan to defeat depression on
several fronts.
Since the strategy was
launched, in April, Newporfs
development director Brian
Adcock has had some notable
victories in the economic
campaign.
And Newport's proposed
shopping paradise for the
1990s has been the biggest
coup so far.
The £70m shopping centre
will dwarf any commercial
development in the town's
history and transform the
town centre between
Commercial Street and
Kingsway.
Theshopper's 'paradise' - a
95,000 sq ft Oebenhams store,
forty smaller shops, scenic lifts
and restaurant, with parking
space for 1,000 cars - will
give Newport the up·market
image needed to attract
shoppers away from
competing areas like Bristol
and Cardiff. That is the aim of
developers, Burton Property
Trust.

The article should have reported that there is a cost to a BID and that businesses would have to pay an extra levy on their rates. Sadly, I don't think Newport City Centre is strong enough to accommodate extra costs at this moment in time.

However, I would like to see the legislation changed in relation to business rateable values. There has to be more flexibility here. There should be scope for a considerable revaluation of properties in Newport Centre so that businesses pay far less in rates. At the same time, there should be scope to hike up the rates at Spytty.

I bet this never happens.

woodgnome seems to have a wooden sense of humour.

I am all for change and welcome any plan which brings the city centre retailers together to improve the dire situation.

Litter? ...Put rubbish in the bins. That'll bring them back. Really?

Any plan needs to be of a sensible scale and will have to accept that Newport can only suppoort about half the retail premises that it curently has

More closures are in the pipeline. The Britiania Building Society Branch is going & probably Llyods TSB & Cheltenham & Gloucester as they are also now owned by the Co-op as they bought out the Newport Branch of Llyods

Any plan needs to be of a sensible scale and will have to accept that Newport can only suppoort about half the retail premises that it curently has

More closures are in the pipeline. The Britiania Building Society Branch is going & probably Llyods TSB & Cheltenham & Gloucester as they are also now owned by the Co-op as they bought out the Newport Branch of Llyods

Newport has some of the finest examples of architecture anywhere in Wales but the absence of creative thinking by bureaucrats has meant it continues to look dowdy and down at heel. I moved away in 1997 for work reasons (born in Brynglas), but when I return it never ceases to amaze me how stagnant and non-progressive Newport is. The architecture of its wonderful buildings should be the inspiration for thinking creatively.

Bobevans wrote:
Any plan needs to be of a sensible scale and will have to accept that Newport can only suppoort about half the retail premises that it curently has

More closures are in the pipeline. The Britiania Building Society Branch is going & probably Llyods TSB & Cheltenham & Gloucester as they are also now owned by the Co-op as they bought out the Newport Branch of Llyods

They are not going as there are planning applications in for their rebranding to TSB as part of the Lloyds group rebrand. Not sure what coop has to do with anything?

Rumour has it that boots is next to leave what is left of the plane crash that used to be the bustling high street of newport town.

Bran man hasn't made a single suggestion. Retailers dont want to open up in a litter strewn dump but of course this will not work on it's own. Some folk need to have more imagination and start somewhere rather than sit back and do nothing.

First thing these guys have to do is clean out drunks from the main strip, Walking through town saturday afternoon and all you can see at the top end is 6 drunks swearring and shouting and being sick all over the floor, not a good impression and not very safe for shoppers either, if it isnt drunks it is gangs of kids wonderring around upto no good. You dont see any of this in Cardiff, so the question must be asked, why is Newport in the state it is?..........

There are a number of issues with the city centre that have developed over the last 20 years. These aren't just limited to rates or drunks. The city centre is too big and needs to be shrunk. More needs to be made of the city centre's architecture.

There needs to be a complete look at the centre and a joined up plan needs to be put in place.

What ez needed is to complusory purchase all the property in a designated zone at knock down prices and relaunch with affordable rent. The rwason why Burtons legged it !!!

Along with the debenhams idea, the only sensible thing would be to open a large indoor centre similar to St Davids in Cardiff with free parking. Long term, commercial street could be a decent appartment area if the citys image improves. The buildings are like the tardis with basements and large back of house areas but of course £££'s are needed to convert. Something else, maybe if they concentrated on one area now e.g. the old train station, kings hotel, that nasty arcade. If they could create something more exclusive within the city other companies may join in?

unfortunately the town is now going to need billions literally spent on it. Its in a terrible state I did have a look around the old art college flats and inside especially the more expensive ones look very nice and if they were in bath or bristol there would of been a que a mile long but sadly step through the front door and you see a town on its last legs dirty filthy run down street next door to dirty filthy run down street. I see they are trying to rent them out now

Simply offering free parking and fining littering will not save Newport City Centre, it is experiencing problems that are reflected across many older towns and cities in the UK. I read a lot about the success of Cwmbran but this does not reflect Newport, Cwmbran was designed as a new town so the shopping centre was built to accommodate all of its stores and associated parking on a single site (exactly the same as out of town shopping centres in major towns and cities). Bristol and Cardiff have their main centres as well as out of town shopping but they benefit from being very successful "city break" destinations so again it is not fair to compare Newport to these. There are many towns in the UK that have managed to prosper despite the economic downturn and they achieve this by first deciding on an identity for the town, a USP that they decide to promote to the rest of the UK to make visiting desirable. Abergavenny has successfully promoted itself internationally as a destination for fine food and drink. I believe that before any more money is wasted on fragmented developments and knee jerk reactions, Newport and its residents need to decide what it is they want to be, then a plan can be put in place to engage all of the residents and businesses to create something that we once gain enjoy using and others will want to visit.

Jonos44 wrote:
Simply offering free parking and fining littering will not save Newport City Centre, it is experiencing problems that are reflected across many older towns and cities in the UK. I read a lot about the success of Cwmbran but this does not reflect Newport, Cwmbran was designed as a new town so the shopping centre was built to accommodate all of its stores and associated parking on a single site (exactly the same as out of town shopping centres in major towns and cities). Bristol and Cardiff have their main centres as well as out of town shopping but they benefit from being very successful "city break" destinations so again it is not fair to compare Newport to these. There are many towns in the UK that have managed to prosper despite the economic downturn and they achieve this by first deciding on an identity for the town, a USP that they decide to promote to the rest of the UK to make visiting desirable. Abergavenny has successfully promoted itself internationally as a destination for fine food and drink. I believe that before any more money is wasted on fragmented developments and knee jerk reactions, Newport and its residents need to decide what it is they want to be, then a plan can be put in place to engage all of the residents and businesses to create something that we once gain enjoy using and others will want to visit.

Jonos44 - you were doing well then, I was really interested in your comment until you lost it completely by saying we should find an identity for the town.
To find an identity for a town, it has to have 'something' to offer. You could ask every person in a 20 mile radius of Newport centre what are the towns sellable characteristics and they would all say Caerleons nice with the roman history and pubs and....... oh??
If some of the developments mentioned above by others were put in place maybe then in 5-10 years from now we could consider identifying Newport in a positive way.
Until some dramatic expensive changes are made I feel Newport is never going to be respected.

I am not saying that it will be easy or cheap, in fact I am not even sure it can be saved as I fear that Newport's residents have lost all faith in their city. If this is really the case and there are no sustainable options for the city centre as it stands then isn't it about time the people of Newport and its decision makers simply faced up to the facts as enough money has been wasted over the years on failed developments and ill conceived rescue plans. If the residents of Newport want their main shopping to be out of town then lets push trough planning and transport plans to support this after all this money then goes into the city economy rather than Cwmbran, Bristol, & Cardiff. Newport city has prime transport links due to the train station and direct access to the M4 making it an excellent location for offices therefore it could be promoted and developed in this way allowing supporting businesses such as cafes, restaurants,etc who would thrive supporting the office workers. Identities do not necessarily have to be cultural they can be economic, the success of office developments in Langstone and Duffryn as well as Admirals decision to go for a city centre location clearly demonstrates an appetite for office accommodation so maybe it is time to send the shopping out of town and develop the city centre as an area dedicated to finance and administration creating jobs to boost the economy, either way I believe it is time for the public and city leaders to have an open and frank debate.

Jonos44 wrote:
I am not saying that it will be easy or cheap, in fact I am not even sure it can be saved as I fear that Newport's residents have lost all faith in their city. If this is really the case and there are no sustainable options for the city centre as it stands then isn't it about time the people of Newport and its decision makers simply faced up to the facts as enough money has been wasted over the years on failed developments and ill conceived rescue plans. If the residents of Newport want their main shopping to be out of town then lets push trough planning and transport plans to support this after all this money then goes into the city economy rather than Cwmbran, Bristol, & Cardiff. Newport city has prime transport links due to the train station and direct access to the M4 making it an excellent location for offices therefore it could be promoted and developed in this way allowing supporting businesses such as cafes, restaurants,etc who would thrive supporting the office workers. Identities do not necessarily have to be cultural they can be economic, the success of office developments in Langstone and Duffryn as well as Admirals decision to go for a city centre location clearly demonstrates an appetite for office accommodation so maybe it is time to send the shopping out of town and develop the city centre as an area dedicated to finance and administration creating jobs to boost the economy, either way I believe it is time for the public and city leaders to have an open and frank debate.

The 'office' or 'finance' town may be the way to go. It is certainly better than being known as the 'charity' town that Terry Matthews was calling it a few months ago. Creating modern office blocks with reasonably priced rentable space could be the way forward. The Newport offices would certainly be able to rent space cheaper than in Cardiff which would attract business. Then as you mentioned the office workers bring cafes, restaurants etc. Some workers may even move to the area. Who knows maybe in 10 years some well known retailers may come back. Isn't the passport office going soon? That would be the first thing to fill.

I wonder how much longer people in newport will continue to vote labour "because their father voted labour"

Daffy2 wrote:
First thing these guys have to do is clean out drunks from the main strip, Walking through town saturday afternoon and all you can see at the top end is 6 drunks swearring and shouting and being sick all over the floor, not a good impression and not very safe for shoppers either, if it isnt drunks it is gangs of kids wonderring around upto no good. You dont see any of this in Cardiff, so the question must be asked, why is Newport in the state it is?..........

I worked in Cardiff for the last 6 months of 2012 and you most certainly DO see it there, but usually Friday afternoon rather than Saturday, for some odd reason.

Build a wall around the centre, and fill it with water.

Jonos44 wrote:
I am not saying that it will be easy or cheap, in fact I am not even sure it can be saved as I fear that Newport's residents have lost all faith in their city. If this is really the case and there are no sustainable options for the city centre as it stands then isn't it about time the people of Newport and its decision makers simply faced up to the facts as enough money has been wasted over the years on failed developments and ill conceived rescue plans. If the residents of Newport want their main shopping to be out of town then lets push trough planning and transport plans to support this after all this money then goes into the city economy rather than Cwmbran, Bristol, & Cardiff. Newport city has prime transport links due to the train station and direct access to the M4 making it an excellent location for offices therefore it could be promoted and developed in this way allowing supporting businesses such as cafes, restaurants,etc who would thrive supporting the office workers. Identities do not necessarily have to be cultural they can be economic, the success of office developments in Langstone and Duffryn as well as Admirals decision to go for a city centre location clearly demonstrates an appetite for office accommodation so maybe it is time to send the shopping out of town and develop the city centre as an area dedicated to finance and administration creating jobs to boost the economy, either way I believe it is time for the public and city leaders to have an open and frank debate.

That's what I think. With land in the city centre now devalued for retail, office developments should be more viable. Also save some of the best buildings (of which there are many) by converting to housing. Reduce the number of shops. There are too many other ways and places to shop to support all that are there now.

Jinxey wrote:

Bobevans wrote:
Any plan needs to be of a sensible scale and will have to accept that Newport can only suppoort about half the retail premises that it curently has

More closures are in the pipeline. The Britiania Building Society Branch is going & probably Llyods TSB & Cheltenham & Gloucester as they are also now owned by the Co-op as they bought out the Newport Branch of Llyods

They are not going as there are planning applications in for their rebranding to TSB as part of the Lloyds group rebrand. Not sure what coop has to do with anything?

THe LlyodsTSB branch in Newport has been bought by the Co-Op as a part of the sell off of 700 branches. THese will become Co-Op branchs and cannot continue to use the Llyods TSB name

This is the list of Llyods TSB & Cheltenham & Gloucester branches being sold to the Co-op

http://www.lloydstsb
.com/media/lloydstsb
2004/pdfs/Verde_tran
sferring_branches.pd
f

Why does Bob refuse to spell Lloyds correctly? Unless Llyods is the Welsh spelling..

Newport came into its modern being because of industry. Now that industry has gone it leaves Newport no raison d'etre. In the absence of this - simply make it a suburb of Cardiff, sack the councillors and merge the Argus and Echo.

D Taylor wrote:

Jonos44 wrote:
I am not saying that it will be easy or cheap, in fact I am not even sure it can be saved as I fear that Newport's residents have lost all faith in their city. If this is really the case and there are no sustainable options for the city centre as it stands then isn't it about time the people of Newport and its decision makers simply faced up to the facts as enough money has been wasted over the years on failed developments and ill conceived rescue plans. If the residents of Newport want their main shopping to be out of town then lets push trough planning and transport plans to support this after all this money then goes into the city economy rather than Cwmbran, Bristol, & Cardiff. Newport city has prime transport links due to the train station and direct access to the M4 making it an excellent location for offices therefore it could be promoted and developed in this way allowing supporting businesses such as cafes, restaurants,etc who would thrive supporting the office workers. Identities do not necessarily have to be cultural they can be economic, the success of office developments in Langstone and Duffryn as well as Admirals decision to go for a city centre location clearly demonstrates an appetite for office accommodation so maybe it is time to send the shopping out of town and develop the city centre as an area dedicated to finance and administration creating jobs to boost the economy, either way I believe it is time for the public and city leaders to have an open and frank debate.

That's what I think. With land in the city centre now devalued for retail, office developments should be more viable. Also save some of the best buildings (of which there are many) by converting to housing. Reduce the number of shops. There are too many other ways and places to shop to support all that are there now.

Who will pay rents in the city centre (Housing) ? If business cannot afford them there aren't enough upwardly mobile in Newport who can afford it. I doubt the DWP would be willing to pay free council tax for the unemployed to take them on ! Looks like we need to green over the city centre over, and have one big park instead. Maybe an marina at the Riverfront... Keep the chavs on the estates, the shops in some field somewhere.... civilisation.

Bobs just too lazy to proof read his posts. Most of the time he posts the same article twice. And now his errors have been picked up he will report the posts and get them taken down.