Future High Street Fund refresh

 Why am I writing this?

Simple because people forget where we have come from and where we are going so we get stuck in a loop of the same arguments and same idle "councils are crap" rhetoric. 

Assuming we all know the government provided a future high street fund pot of funding, we applied and failed, tweaked our plans and then were awarded a big chunk of cash. if it had been a crap plan it wouldn't have got the funding (cue allegations of other influences 🙄). The successful bid contained a program of projects which were to be funded by the government, the council and other stakeholder which in Tamworth's case is South Staffordshire College. Before I give an update I'll list the projects and add their justifications, which I'm sure the experts on social media or sitting with friends chatting will disagree with. 

Staffordshire College and the Co-op building. 

South Staffordshire college have operated the Tamworth campus for many years now along with Cannock, Lichfield and Robaston. I am aware some won't have realised this or the fact that a large amount of the current college building is empty, unused and mothballed. It has long been an aspiration for the college to move to the town centre and discussions have failed with land owners for a number of year. South Staffordshire College want to move to the town centre. 

Why is Tamworth Borough Council supporting the college's desire to move ? Simple, a thriving town centre is a busy one which houses reasons for people to be in the town centre offices, businesses, colleges and universities provide reasons to be in the town centre which brings disposable income to support the hospitality and retail of a town centre. I am very aware that a lot of people don't like the generations that follow theirs and label them as a problem, all generations have a small number who make the same mistakes as the previous ones did and maintain the narrative but these are limited and the rest of that generation suffers. A college brings day time students, night school students and then a group of staff from admin to teachers etc, a whole load of people operate within a college campus. So thats in a nutshell why Tamworth Borough Council supported the project. 

Progress - 

Middle Entry

Whilst at the time middle entry met the then vision for the town centre and retail offer times have changed and so have opinions. Middle entry and its architecture detract massively from the historic elements of Tamworth, almost creating a barrier between the castle, town hall, market street and the magnificent St Editha's church.

The project here originally was to change the whole design of middle entry with 2 sweeping buildings  creating a flow and visual lines connecting the above heritage assets. 

Clear line of sight and pedestrian flow along with improvements to the facade of the buildings was the ultimate aim. 

Progress - 

The Flex

This is the name of the shop fronts from middle entry to market street. 

Castle Entrance

Nationwide

Market Street. 

2 Data Breaches !!!!

 2 Data breaches identified on the same day. I'd say one is more serious than the other but the "less serious" one effects more people. The reason I'm writing this is just to view the way these are reported and a view as to what is meant by a data breach as opposed to what is already out there in the public domain.

The Police Service Northern Ireland has had a breach which has given personal details of all their staff, for me this is a serious security issue and this is probably due to my childhood listening and seeing the troubles being broadcast on a daily basis. The shocking thing here is the "breach" was actually a data hand over, a Freedom of Information request was answered with a simple hand over of all this data. Something i would describe as clumsy at best. 

The other data breach relates to the electoral register. . . So almost everyone over the age of 17 in the UK is signed up on the electoral register, this is administered and kept by the local authority and then reported to the electoral commission. According to some media outlets it could be a hack by the Russians, I assume this makes the story more dramatic. 

So why am I writing about this? 

Simple, the electoral register holds quite simple information which only a few years ago was very public, remember when everyone's name, address and telephone number was printed and delivered through everyone else's door in the local area, yes phonebooks were a thing but the world has moved on as well as our desire and need for privacy. 

The electoral register does contain peoples name and address, with those approaching voting age it will also contain their date of birth. This data is stored by the local council and electoral commission. BUT HOLD ON theres some questions here - 

Is literally everyone on the electoral register ?

There's the full register and the open register, i also understand there's a way of opting out of both but still being able to vote. When you apply to be on the register you can opt to not be seen on the register and so not appear on a published copy of the register, YES THE ELECTORAL REGISTER IS PUBLISHED. 

Who can see the electoral register ?

The full electoral register is used by credit reference agencies to update information held on individuals' credit reference files. 

The open register can be bought by any person, company or organisation.

And then there's political parties 

• Registered political parties, candidates and campaigners are entitled to receive copies of the full electoral register which includes eligible voters’ names and addresses.
• They are also entitled to access the “marked register”, which enables identification of individuals who have voted in previous elections and referendums, but not how they have voted.
• Access to this information is important for promoting political participation. Its use can be compatible with data protection law, which must still be complied with. 

The electoral register is used in a variety of ways by a variety of groups of people. so my question is, how a big a story is it that this has been accessed by a hack and not by a simple payment through a normal route, second to that question - what is Russia going to do with our phone book, I mean we now need photo ID to vote, imagine a world where a passport is needed to vote but you can get into the country on a small boat without one. 

So couple of years off and another rambling from me, unedited and posted before I sleep on it. 

Tamworth’s retail challenge Wren Kitchens arrives.

  It’s announced that Wren kitchens is coming to Tamworth and filling the void left by pound stretcher in the newly refurbished retail units.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/wren-kitchens-announce-plans-ventura-15657011

image used from http://www.midlandsbusinessnews.co.uk/businesses-in-exciting-bid-to-unite-tamworth-town-centre-and-ventura-retail-parks/tamworth-cropped-os-map-v2-approximate-area-for-web/

  As ever this story has garnered some opinion on social media so I thought I'd share mine and I'm going to do this is two parts, firstly about Wren Kitchens and the other potential clients and secondly my view on the broader debate.

  I am really pleased to see Wren Kitchens come to Tamworth (I'm NOT in the market for a new kitchen). For me this represents a new stage in the retail offer Tamworth has, complementing Bensons for beds, oak furniture land etc. as a shift from 'convenience' shopping further and further down the line of quality bespoke goods. The draw of such products reaches far beyond the boundary of Tamworth and Staffordshire. bringing spend and secondary spend into Tamworth as well as employment. We are slowly building a reputation as a place to buy good quality products whether its a car, kitchen or furniture.

  I see regularly the comment whenever a company chooses to invest in Tamworth that we "should have" or "need" a Primark. can someone please convince me what the argument is and why we need a Primark. We can already shop for relatively cheap clothing with ASDA, Matalan etc, step up to the next level of spend with Next, New Look, Outfit, JD or M&S. so whats the fascination with Primark too? My personal opinion of Primark is one of those which fuels consumerism for the sake of consumerism, yes I'm generalising and primark does fill a gap in the market, but in Today's age we have mountains of waste building up of cheap unwanted furniture,  t-shirts and vest tops in every colour of the rainbow just being used once or twice and thrown away.

Companies come to Tamworth to make money and if they believe they can make a profit, these decisions aren't made on the hoof they are made as a result on very fine detailed analysis of information about footfall, spend levels regional draw, competition etc etc, And this brings me onto the second part- the broader debate.

The broader debate.
Tamworth, retail and the retail revolution.

Tamworth has for many years been debating the conflict between the Town centre and Ventura park, one of the few tools that Tamworth Borough Council has in this is the Local Plan Policy that units outside of the town centre must be of a minimum size large and where possible sell larger goods thus attempting to reduce the competition with the offer of the town centre, This is somewhat high level but the council simply does not have powers to get directly involved in retail.
Time for another reminder. Tamworth Borough Council does not set rent (aside from the few shops it owns) does not set business rates, does not run shops, does not have any say on what shops run their business in Tamworth (unless they need a license).

So the Challenge-
Whats the impact of the Internet?
Why do stores choose to come to or not to come to Tamworth.

   I worry about the future of retail shops full stop, and have said this before, with the onset of the Internet more and more spend is shifting away from shopping trips and more to sofa shopping. I know that in my household around 80% of Christmas presents were bought on line, the majority of which was delivered next day to my front door. This has been the same for the last three years and seems somewhat less stressful and easier than visiting stores,

    Now the worry is everyone does the same as my household we end up with less and less shops in either Tamworth's Town centre or Tamworth's Retail centre. so what can be done to save these assets. both others and I have speculated about stores offering samples would become prevalent and your purchases are made with the good being delivered to your property at an agreed time, so bridging the gap between traditional stores, Argos, and amazon. As time goes by I'm not sure this is actually going to become mainstream across the full range of products on offer in our stores,
  There are items though that will always attract that touchy feel purchasing and these include cars, furniture, kitchens, carpets etc where the purchaser has an experience spends time considering options and making very personal choices which you simply can't do on a glass or plastic screen.
So for me the Internet retail revolution is a danger to Tamworth's retail offer but i feel the stores here are beginning to look towards what I've described. (including Wren)


  Earlier I raised the question why do store choose to come to or not to come to Tamworth. whilst this is complex there are some simple things we can pull out of the methodology. I must state thou first, if you talk to people from Tamworth the competition is between the town centre and retail centre of ventura park if you talk to one of these stores looking at Tamworth its the competition between ANY part of Tamworth and Cannock, Burton, Solihull, Stoke, etc.

  For many years prior to the aspiration of a Primark many people in Tamworth wanted to see a Marks and Spencers, eventually we got one but it was a long journey. The key to many decision is not just location, infrastructure and the like but relates to data held about spend per head of visitor. Many stores are now in Tamworth and would never have come to the town centre because the average spend per head of customer was below their threshold. this is no longer the case at our retail park. larger brands with higher spends attract other higher brands with higher spends. of course this also means employment opportunities and growth in the local economy.

The key for me to the retail challenge is ensuring we get ahead of the curve in terms of retail as a leisure and link into eateries, beauty, fitness and well being. Tamworth geography and growth puts us in a great place to continue to thrive if we look forward and embrace the challenge not back at what we thought we had.