Shopping local

By Liam Murphy on Jan 12, 10 02:01 PM

This story appear to have ruffled feathers and (again) made me unpopular at Wirral Council.

Essentially, the story was about a report done done for the authority about retail in Wirral. To be able to compete against out of town centres such as Cheshire Oaks, along with Liverpool One and Chester, the borough needs more capacity.

The recommendation was to focus on Wiral Waters (and possibly Birkenhead too). However, today the council has issued the following statement:

MEDIA STATEMENT FROM WIRRAL COUNCIL
12/01/10

Subject: Wirral Council statement regarding proposed retail strategy for the Borough
The findings of a report that will inform the future direction of planning policy for retail, Town Centre and commercial leisure development across Wirral in the future will be reported to Wirral's Cabinet on the 14th of January.
Commenting on the report Jim Wilkie, Deputy Chief Executive of Wirral Council, said:
"At present Wirral loses around 35% of non food retail spend to shopping centres outside the Borough. This is a challenge that must be addressed if we are to continue to drive forward the development of our economy in the future.
"It is predicted that over the next fifteen years that Wirral has a requirement for up to 85,000 square metres of addition non-food retail space. It is crucial to note that this is in addition to an allowance for growth for existing retail centres across Wirral, for example Heswall, Liscard and New Ferry. The expansion also includes all existing planning consents for retail development. The report examined a range of options to address this significant requirement and identified Wirral Waters and Birkenhead Town centre as the only sites with the physical capacity to deliver new retail business growth at the required scale.
"National, Local and Regional Planning Policies continue to support growth of retail within current centres. In any event the Council remains absolutely committed to supporting all our local shopping centres and this framework would enable us to do so.
"Our consultants spoke to a wide range of business representatives while drawing up the report and we are committed to continuing the regular dialogue we have with the business community. We have already requested a meeting with the Federation of Small Business to address the concerns that have been raised by them this week."