Colchester town centre traders want action to save businesses (From Gazette)

Colchester town centre traders want action to save businesses

9:50pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

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URGENT action is needed to keep Colchester town centre alive, retail bosses have warned.

A vision of how the centre of Colchester could develop in decades to come was unveiled to councillors, business and community leaders last night.

Organisations including Colchester Council and Essex County Council outlined nine ways to make the town centre more attractive, including better transport links and creating more public open space.

Paul Bentham, manager of Lion Walk Shopping Centre, and Derek Ashbee, his counterpart at Culver Square, said the vision of Colchester was fantastic – but more urgently needed to be done in the short term, as the recession meant nearly one in eight town centre shops were vacant.

Mr Ashbee said: “Everything we can see around here is great and very positive. My concerns are the here and now.”

Mr Bentham pointed to other town centres, like Chelmsford, where empty shopfronts were used to display maps and information.

He said: “First impressions count for a lot and the appearance of the town centre now is that empty shops are unkempt, windows are dirty and there’s mail inside the door.

“When people come looking in our town, they get a feel for the town, and if they get a feel for empty, uncared units, that’s the reflection they have.”

Slack Space, a project which aims to fill empty stores with art and music, has had more than 10,000 visitors to its home in Long Wyre Street.

But, Lyn Barton, councillor responsible for regeneration, said more work was needed to make the town centre more attractive.

She said: “Slack Space has addressed some of those issues, but I’m very much a believer in using the empty spaces.”

Mrs Barton said she wanted to hear from anyone with thoughts on how to make the town centre a more attractive place.

Mr Ashbee and Mr Bentham both stressed the retail situation in Colchester was improving, with four High Street names interested in moving to a major new unit in Lion Walk.

l An exhibition entitled “We Believe in a Better Town Centre” will be on display in Culver Street West from 10am to 4pm today before it moves to the High Street, outside the Town Hall, tomorrow.

It will then be in the former Shoeworld store on Thursday and Lion Walk on Friday.