Marks and spencer Swansea

[Smurph]

I've probably told this story before, but a project I was working for about 12 years ago was slotted in under the remit of the city centre manager and he told us about the lengths they were going to in an attempt to attract Waitrose to open in Parc Tawe 2. They put together an incredible package for Waitrose that included nominal rent and other financial incentives to open in Swansea. Waitrose did a feasibility study and concluded that it still wasn't worth it to them, that there simply wasn't enough money being spent/shoppers visiting Swansea to make it worthwhile to them.

The only way the council could have bent over backwards more would be to pay retailers to open here and I doubt many residents would think that a good use of council funds.

As ECB and others have said, the majority have chosen the convenience of out-of-town shopping or the convenience and cheaper prices of online shopping to visiting our city centre. If everyone who complained about the state of retail in the city centre actually spent money there, it would probably be thriving.

I'm not here saying the council are great, many poor decisions have been made by successive councils. Bendy buses, the endless tinkering with traffic on the Kingsway and likely many more that aren't coming to mind right now. The pivot towards living accommodation, leisure, dining, etc may not work in the long run, but as I've said, I haven't seen a better suggestion made. What they do with the Civic Centre will be interesting, as that will be an attempt to connect the beachfront with the city centre.

Sorry, disagree with that, plenty of other city centres are thriving up and down the UK.

 

[Neath_Jack]

Nothing can really be resolved until Wales gets a fair settlement from Westminster and the WAG is moved out of Cardiff, preferably to abandoned mid-Wales (or Monmouth ), and distributes resources fairly.

So, never.

You spelt independence wrong

 

[JackSomething]

Sorry, disagree with that, plenty of other city centres are thriving up and down the UK.

I'm sure they are, but it's obviously not as simple as pointing at them and saying 'we should just do that'. You know as well as I do that lots of different things factor into what makes a city centre successful, such as economic conditions, location, population size, on and on.

So far in this thread, people have pointed at Cardiff and Shrewsbury as two successful city/town centres. I agree on Cardiff and a quick Google on Shrewsbury suggests they're correct about that one too. The problem is that Swansea is not comparable to either and copying either of their approaches is literally impossible without a magic money tree and/or a time machine.

I'm cautiously encouraged that at least there is a plan for Swansea and the amount of work being done in the city centre over recent years shows that attempts are being made. The Arena, Y Storfa, 71/72 Kingsway, Palace Theatre have all been completed in recent years and we have another redevelopment of Castle Gardens ongoing, alongside the Civic Centre, proposals for a public sector hub at St Davids and the work going on at the former Debenhams unit.

Anyone who hadn't been to Swansea in say five years and took an unbiased look at the city centre today would surely be impressed by all the changes, even if they may be underwhelmed by the retail options.

 

[Smurph]

I'm sure they are, but it's obviously not as simple as pointing at them and saying 'we should just do that'. You know as well as I do that lots of different things factor into what makes a city centre successful, such as economic conditions, location, population size, on and on.

So far in this thread, people have pointed at Cardiff and Shrewsbury as two successful city/town centres. I agree on Cardiff and a quick Google on Shrewsbury suggests they're correct about that one too. The problem is that Swansea is not comparable to either and copying either of their approaches is literally impossible without a magic money tree and/or a time machine.

I'm cautiously encouraged that at least there is a plan for Swansea and the amount of work being done in the city centre over recent years shows that attempts are being made. The Arena, Y Storfa, 71/72 Kingsway, Palace Theatre have all been completed in recent years and we have another redevelopment of Castle Gardens ongoing, alongside the Civic Centre, proposals for a public sector hub at St Davids and the work going on at the former Debenhams unit.

Anyone who hadn't been to Swansea in say five years and took an unbiased look at the city centre today would surely be impressed by all the changes, even if they may be underwhelmed by the retail options.

Someone visiting Swansea city centre would be impressed by all the changes?

I think we're done.

 

[JackSomething]

Someone visiting Swansea city centre would be impressed by all the changes?

I think we're done.

Fair enough if you're done, but did you not see the list of everything that been built/improved in recent years? If you can't acknowledge a massive amount of work has gone on that has improved things and can only concentrate on the retail options, then we can't really have a sensible discussion on the topic.

 

[Smurph]

Fair enough if you're done, but did you not see the list of everything that been built/improved in recent years? If you can't acknowledge a massive amount of work has gone on that has improved things and can only concentrate on the retail options, then we can't really have a sensible discussion on the topic.

Like what? The city centre is like a scene from a zombie movie.

The arena has been a great addition can't disagree with that. We're four years on and it's still not finished.

Never going to agree on this, I'm out.

 

[Cooperman]

Someone visiting Swansea city centre would be impressed by all the changes?

I think we're done.

Absolutely not. The city centre is a disgrace compared to what it was twenty years ago. If there is a regeneration plan (I haven’t seen one if there is), then it needs to deliver quickly.

 

[Smurph]

Absolutely not. The city centre is a disgrace compared to what it was twenty years ago. If there is a regeneration plan (I haven’t seen one if there is), then it needs to deliver quickly.

More of a degeneration plan, if anything.

 

[JackSomething]

Still yet more complaining with no evidence of how the city centre is worse than it was except for less shops, with still no suggestions on what could realistically be done other than what is being done. Feels like complaining for the sake of it at this point.

Also, the Arena has been finished for ages. The car park and units on the other side of the bridge obviously are not finished. I appreciate the issues with the contractors are mostly to blame, but the length of building time is pretty farcical by this point.

 

[Smurph]

Still yet more complaining with no evidence of how the city centre is worse than it was except for less shops, with still no suggestions on what could realistically be done other than what is being done. Feels like complaining for the sake of it at this point.

Also, the Arena has been finished for ages. The car park and units on the other side of the bridge obviously are not finished. I appreciate the issues with the contractors are mostly to blame, but the length of building time is pretty farcical by this point.

Is it moaning or people just expressing an opinion that differs to yours?

 

[Neath_Jack]

Also, the Arena has been finished for ages. The car park and units on the other side of the bridge obviously are not finished. I appreciate the issues with the contractors are mostly to blame, but the length of building time is pretty farcical by this point.

Just to be clear, it was the fault of the original council appointed contractors (Buckinghams) that royally fucked the car park up.

The length of time it then stood empty and not progressing would have further deteriorated the unfinished, exposed materials, a lot of which were not designed to be left open to the elements which would have meant stripping everything back to pretty much the bare bones again.

The council should never have given both projects to that contractor in the beginning.

 

[cmajack]

Add Bournemouth, Plymouth and Bristol to the list. Even Warrington has a better city centre than Swansea.

Oxford has a very decent shopping centre too. For the second city of Wales our shopping centre is a disgrace. Marks and Spencer, Next , should both be in the city centre, they are in most decent size cities, the biggest River island is in Morfa. Our quadrant centre is a joke compared to other city centres. Why would anyone want to go into the centre next Christmas for shopping, there is virtually nothing worth visiting, if Primark goes there will be nothing left (don't shop there myself, wife does occasionally).

 

[Smurph]

Oxford has a very decent shopping centre too. For the second city of Wales our shopping centre is a disgrace. Marks and Spencer, Next , should both be in the city centre, they are in most decent size cities, the biggest River island is in Morfa. Our quadrant centre is a joke compared to other city centres. Why would anyone want to go into the centre next Christmas for shopping, there is virtually nothing worth visiting, if Primark goes there will be nothing left (don't shop there myself, wife does occasionally).

Boots will be gone before too long.

 

[cmajack]

Boots will be gone before too long.

And that will be the end, have heard from staff in Primark they have heard rumours about it under performing.

 

[Smurph]

And that will be the end, have heard from staff in Primark they have heard rumours about it under performing.

Upstairs in Boots was virtually empty the last time I was I there.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Primark go, lord knows how much it must cost to keep that place going