Revitalising our Town Centres -  Live, Work and Play

I wrote an article in April of last year.  We were heading towards the election and I wanted to highlight how important the economy is to the success of our island.  We were also in the first lockdown so I wanted to focus on how we could help the economy recover in a post Covid-19 world.  Almost a year on, we find ourselves in a similar position.    

So, once again, I am looking to the future.  I very much hope that ‘Guernsey Together’ will live on post-pandemic because that is when our local businesses will need our support and custom more than ever.  The Wholesale / Retail sector has been hit hard by the pandemic and this has resulted in a number of stores closing down for good.  And let’s not forget that this comes after years of decline in high street retail due to, amongst other things, competition from the internet.  One obvious sign of this trend is the number of vacant shops in town.  And this matters because the Retail / Wholesale sector employs 12%* of the islands workforce and delivers circa 8%* of GVA. 

I talked about the number of empty shops (and empty floors above shops) during the election campaign and Steve Falla, one of my colleagues on Economic Development, brought the subject up again more recently.

As things start to return to normal, what can be done to reverse the decline in retail?  There is no single solution, but I believe that we need to stop thinking about our town centres as simply retail hubs.  Normally, the streets are full of people from 9am – 6pm but thereafter people leave and go home.  As a result, the streets empty apart from the few people who live in town and others who are going out to a pub or restaurant.   Instead, we need to start thinking of our town centres as places to live, work and play.  This means mixing up the use of property and making the most of the buildings that we already have.   

One way of doing this would be to repurpose empty shops / derelict buildings so that the upper floors can be turned into much needed housing.  This could have a positive impact on our town centres.  If more people live in the town centres, more people will have easy access to shops and restaurants, generating trade and creating a buzz outside of the 9am – 6pm period.  In addition, if more people live in town, it might reduce traffic, help more people get onto the housing ladder and release pressure on brown / green field sites.  In other words, why just build new homes when we already have plenty of empty / derelict space?  And why stop at repurposing shops.  There are also vacant offices and other underutilised buildings which could also be converted. 

We should also be more flexible in what type of businesses can use a building.  This might encourage more people to set up in empty shops, restaurants, offices and other empty / underutilised buildings.  Again, this would help to create a more dynamic and diverse offering in our town centres.   What about an art gallery or a Victor Hugo centre in the centre of St Peter Port?  Both would add to the town centre ‘offering’ and both would be great spaces for locals and tourists alike.

Of course, these changes will work better in some parts of our town centres than they will in others.  For example, when I walk into St Peter Port, I normally go down Mansell Street and Mill Street.  I love these narrow, cobbled streets, lined with attractive and sometimes quirky buildings.  They are Beautiful spaces with huge amounts of charm and character, but I can’t help but think that we could be doing more to bring them back to life.  Yes, there are a number of successful businesses in both locations but there are also a large number of empty, sometimes derelict, shops and restaurants together with more unused space on the upper floors.  Repurposing buildings here would help to revitalise the area and bring it back to life.  However, this part of the town centre has another issue and that is accessibility.  Unless, like me, these streets are on your way into St Peter Port or you happen to live or work in the area, you are probably unlikely to venture too far up the hill unless you are after something specific.

I know that some people will disagree with me but the only way to unlock the potential of this area is to improve accessibility and that includes better bus connections plus additional car parking which is very limited today.            

There is no single solution that will reverse the decline in retail, but I do believe that we need to move from retail centric town centres to more of a live, work and play town centre model.  Repurposing buildings and being flexible in terms of what businesses can operate from a building is a step in the right direction. 

Whether you agree or disagree with me, it is good that people are talking about revitalising our town centres and that there is a healthy debate about how best to do it.  Now we need to turn words into actions.