Our City: Newport council leader on plans for city centre

Newport council leader Jane Mudd spoke to the Argus about the local authority’s work to build a resilient city centre that can respond to present and future challenges.

“Work is changing, leisure is changing, the way we interact is changing somewhat,” Cllr Mudd said.

“We want Newport city centre to be thriving and vibrant… and we recognize within that, what’s really important, is that it needs to be mixed use.”

“As a council we’ve recognised the change to retail, and while we’ve put measures in place to support businesses, we’re also looking at change of use so that we didn’t have so much vacant space,” she added.

“A lot of that work is ongoing.”

Since 2018, the council’s blueprint for the city centre has been its Masterplan, which designates three zones for targeted improvements.

The Northern Gateway includes the railway station, High Street and the market area, while the main shopping thoroughfares like Commercial Street and John Frost Square are grouped together in the City Core.

Finally, The Riverside area covers Clarence Place and the banks of the Usk, from Town Bridge to the George Street Bridge.

“Some of these projects are quite transformational, and over the next couple of months what we’ll see, as they near completion, are some quite significant changes – [especially] the projects going on in and around the High Street area,” Cllr Mudd said of the Masterplan.

“The Market Arcade is nearing completion, the indoor market opens next month, and we’ve got the Devon Place footbridge – which is so important in terms of connectivity.

“Once these projects are completed I would hope the people of Newport see that it’s got a really broad range in offer.”

This plan to broaden what the city centre offers is largely a response to changing consumer habits, with online shopping and out-of-town retail parks driving fuelling an exodus of shoppers from traditional high streets across the UK.

Earlier this month, the Argus reported on research by the Centre for Cities, which found Newport had a higher proportion of empty shops (33 per cent) than any other city centre in Britain.

The council has questioned the way this figure was calculated, but even the local authority’s own estimate of 22 per cent vacant shops in the centre of Newport means Cllr Mudd “understands the challenge” of stopping the decline.

Empty retail units in Newport city centre.

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Breathing new life into tired, vacant shops is something the council often has little power to do on its own, however, not least because many of the retail premises in the city centre are privately owned, meaning the council doesn’t have the remit to renovate or reopen them.

“One of our biggest challenges as a local authority is that in terms of property in the city centre, there’s very little of that in our ownership,” Cllr Mudd said.

“I think it’s easy to make the assumption that it’s our city centre so the council must own it, but actually we don’t.”

Instead, the council has to build bridges with the private sector, and it’s here the city’s business improvement district (the Newport Now BID) plays a key role.

“No local authority can do that on their own – it’s very much about partnership working,” Cllr Mudd said, adding:

“The BID has got somebody whose role is to liaise with those property owners and try and find tenants for them.”

Wider changes to shopping habits mean there may be less demand for retail properties than there was 50 years ago, so other organisations are working with the council to change some old commercial buildings into something new and much more valuable to the city centre.

This can range from new co-working spaces, like the QNewport hub in the former pub The Queen’s Hotel, to residential buildings.

“One of the best examples of that is what Pobl has done, which we partnered them with, in terms of the Commercial Street development of accommodation for over-55s, on the site of the former Hornblower pub,” Cllr Mudd said, describing the finished project in Commercial Street as “outstanding”.

“It’s an example of how we can take something that’s old, run down and no longer fit-for-purpose, and completely change it [into something] that brings people into the city centre," she added.

Similar successes include the Newport City Homes apartments at Albany Chambers, above Skinner Street; and in High Street the former King’s Hotel, which has been turned into luxury apartments by a private developer.

Having more people living in the city centre increases the footfall, and “actually changes the atmosphere there as well, which is another positive”, Cllr Mudd said.

This focus on change-of-use doesn’t mean traders are being overlooked, however.

Cllr Mudd stressed “we do need to support retail going forward” and described independent businesses as a “significant portion” of Newport’s “leisure offer”.

People in Newport city centre during the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Huw Evans Picture Agency

To encourage new traders, and to help existing businesses expand, the council has increased its start-up grant fund to a £300,000 pot, with new firms in the city centre each able to apply for up to £10,000 support.

More than 70 new enterprises were able to set up in Newport during the pandemic, Cllr Mudd said.

Meanwhile, the development of the city’s new leisure centre will further broaden the variety of things on offer – and years after the University of Wales Newport’s base in Caerleon was closed, plans to build a new Coleg Gwent campus in the Riverside area will bring 2,000 students daily into the city centre, in what will undoubtedly be a huge boost to wider footfall.

Even with these improvements, though, can Newport compete with its bigger neighbours, Cardiff and Bristol?

“It's not about competition between the three cities; it’s about how our offers complement each other,” Cllr Mudd said.

Jane Mudd, the leader of Newport City Council. Picture: www.christinsleyphotography.co.uk (Image: File)

“What we’ve got here Newport is a very strong independent sector, and a very strong creative sector, and one of our strengths is the energy and vibrancy that comes from them.

"And that is different from – and complementary to – the offer you would get from Cardiff and experience in Bristol.

“It’s the people of Newport that give it that vibrancy, that creativity, that diversity."

This is one of a series of 'Our City' features looking at Newport and the people who call it home.