Why can’t you maintain what you already have?
We have the opportunity and funding for a transformational scheme which will act as a catalyst to regeneration of the city centre.
This involves thinking big and bold, creating a scheme which has longevity and takes into account best practice in landscape design, sustainability and planting.
Rather than work around existing, tired infrastructure, the new scheme will give the city a new, high quality city centre park for many decades to come.
Why can’t we have better shops rather than new landscaping?
The High Street has changed dramatically over the last decade or so. Long before the pandemic, the rise of online shopping had already had a negative impact on high streets up and down the country. We can’t force shops to open in Plymouth, but we can create conditions which encourages them to come to Plymouth.
One of Plymouth’s long-standing issues is that its city centre footprint is massive – equivalent to Manchester’s central shopping area but without the population to support it. We want to change the mix that the city centre offers, attract more people to live here, spend their leisure time here, eat and drink. We want to broaden the offer so that the city centre has much more to offer as well as great shopping.
Why can’t the council lower the rents or rates?
The rateable value is set by the Valuation Office Agency and the council issues bills based on these values. While the Council is a freeholder of retail properties in the city centre, the vast majority of units are subject to long leasehold interests. The Council has very little control over the day to day management of these properties and the rents charged, which are set by the leaseholders in lettings to third parties.
What is the council doing to sort out the empty shops?
We’re working with Plymouth Culture, the City Centre Company and Vacancy Atlas to fill vacant spaces with cultural projects.
Working with landlords, we identify vacant units that can be made available on a ‘meanwhile use’ basis. The meanwhile use licence will be offered rent free for up to six months. This gives people the chance to test ideas that can then be refined for a sustainable future on the high street. It also aims to increase footfall, bring new audiences to the city centre and try out new products and experiences.
In the long term we aim to create new experiences to get more people to spend more time in the city centre as well as improve and expand the city centre night time economy. For more information visit Plymouth Culture.
Why did you start work on this scheme when other schemes are unfinished?
In an ideal world, the Old Town Street/New George Street scheme should have finished ahead of Armada Way starting. However, the scheme hit issues in its first phase which slowed progress. Like other construction schemes, it was also affected by the post-pandemic supply chain issues including the supply of granite.