Agenda item

Future High Street Fund

A new £675 million Future High Streets Fund has been set up by Central Government to help local areas to respond to and adapt to changes and support local areas to prepare long-term strategies for their high streets and town centers.  

Officer: Victoria Moloney, Head of South Wiltshire Recovery

Minutes:

Victoria Moloney, Head of South Wiltshire Recovery, and Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Salisbury Recovery, provided information on the Future High Street Fund, available from Central Government.

 

We would be requesting £25m

 

  • The ‘recovery’ economic programme has the high street as a focus and hence have been developing potential projects
  • High street funding announced in Dec ‘18 – deadline March 22nd
  • If successful then funding could come through later in the year, and we are working with the support of the LEP on emerging projects
  • The EoI needs to describe the place, the challenges, strategic ambitions, links with other strategies and potential projects.
  • Have had a number of engagement events; undertaking surveys.

 

  • Salisbury City Council – 11th March
  • Salisbury Area Board – Next formal meeting post 22nd March deadline. Cllrs brief 8th March
  • Business Improvement District – 12th March
  • Chamber of Commerce – 13th March
  • Young People – 18-30 – 5th March
  • Salisbury Independents – 14th March
  • Wiltshire College, Schools and Young People – 11th March
  • Online Survey -  13 February to 11 March 2019 (474 responses)
  • Facebook (173 comments)
  • Business Summit and Survey – (130 questionnaires)

 

As much information we have is shared on our website at:

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/salisbury-amesbury

 

Footfall was down, although 2017 managed to buck the national trend, 2018 hit us with a vengeance.  The nerve attacks exacerbated and potentially brought forward decline of footfall and then spend.  We heard from the previous speaker the national issues that the high street was facing.

 

Strategic Ambitions – 4 Themes

 

  • Ensure a great experience of the high street
  • Salisbury is a tourist destination
  • Bring young people into the city
  • Support businesses growth.
  • The city’s retail offer should be varied, providing experience as well as product                               
  • Non-retail services should be high quality, varied and integrated into the retail offer                 
  • The city centre will be a well curated place, with a programme of events   
  • Strong evening and night time economy
  • Shoppers and visitors should find it easy to travel and move around the city                            
  • Technology should enhance the shopping experience           

 

Invest in Salisbury’s image - access to river side, heritage shop fronts, cafés

 

  • Supporting businesses to adjust to changing environment
  • Providing internet technology to enable businesses to thrive                  
  • Improving the gateways to the city & focus on better management of the city centre    
  • Creating work/make/sell spaces
  • Supporting new businesses in establishing themselves

                              

Indicative Projects Including:                                                

  • Railway station and environment.                   
  • Accessibility of Salisbury (car, bus, cycle, pedestrian)
  • Creating work/make/sell spaces from current uses (rebalancing the place)
  • Residential living ’above the shop’ concept
  • Public realm enhancement
  • Integration with Creative Quarter
  • New tourist experience from Station
  • Experiences, lighting, projections

 

Illuminating Salisbury:

  • The night time economy has been particularly impacted, suffering a 20% loss in footfall, an estimated £15m loss.
  • Intention is to develop a new visitor attraction using light and sound
  • Enhance Salisbury’s night-time offer, as a visitor attraction and through keeping the city vibrant into the evening hours
  • Complementing and showcasing our existing cultural and heritage assets
  • Encourage repeat visitors through new displays
  • Using light would enhance wayfinding around the city

 

Scoping to include:

  • Improving pedestrian and cycling facilities into the city;
  • Rebalancing space to prioritise non-motorised movements through gateway features, public realm decluttering and other measures
  • Reduction of traffic in the city centre through traffic management measures alongside pedestrianisation;
  • Improvements to the five Park and Ride services, including where possible bus prioritisation;
  • Improved wayfinding through increased legibility of streets and improved signage.     

 

Questions and Comments:

Some residents had a feeling that nothing was going on, but this presentation shows that there is a massive amount of work going on corporately at the council. Behind some of these ideas there had been a great deal of research. A great deal of these ideas had come from residents as well as Officers.