COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT  

OFFICIAL REPORT
(Hansard)

Inquiry into Town Centre Regeneration

29 May 2008

Members present for all or part of the proceedings:
Mr Gregory Campbell (Chairperson)
Mr Mickey Brady
Mr Jonathan Craig
Ms Anna Lo
Mr Alban Maginness
Mr Fra McCann
Miss Michelle McIlveen

Witnesses:
Mr Adrian McCreesh ) Cookstown District Council
Mr Terry Scullion )

The Chairperson (Mr Campbell):
The next item on the Committee’s agenda is a contribution from representatives of Cookstown District Council and Cookstown Town Centre Forum. I apologise for the delay, gentlemen. We have been held up a little, but we are glad to see you. I ask you to make a brief opening contribution, and the Committee will follow with some questions. Having listened to the Strabane representatives, you will already know our line of inquiry.

Mr Adrian McCreesh (Cookstown District Council):
Thank you, once again, for the opportunity to come before the Committee. I am a director of development for Cookstown District Council. My colleague, Terry Scullion, is our town strategy manager. He is responsible for many of the success stories that we have achieved in Cookstown over the last several years.

I have listened to the Strabane representatives’ contribution and, effectively, they could have written our script. Therefore, I will not put the Committee through any pain by replicating what has already been said. Many of the strategic issues mentioned by Philip Faithful also apply to Cookstown, as a west-of-the-Bann, provincial town.

I will go off script, think on the spot and introduce a few other issues that the Committee may want to ponder and, perhaps, explore with other Departments. It is nearly lunchtime, so I will talk for a few minutes and that will be the last that you will hear of me. I will then hand over to my colleague.

Cookstown is a provincial town — like every other town in the west — and has a population of 12,000. Historically, it is predominantly an agricultural, market town but it has faced severe problems. Mr Brady mentioned the high unemployment levels in Newry and Strabane. Unfortunately, Cookstown had similarly massive unemployment — 20% in the 1970s and 1980s.

Over the past 15 years, there has been a significant economic sea change in Cookstown, where levels of social deprivation and unemployment have reduced drastically. The town has had its first significant inward investor in 27 years, and we are blessed with a very strong indigenous business population base, which creates the vast majority of employment in the area, and, invariably, its wealth.

Let me focus on the town centre. It accounts for approximately 30% of employees in the district council area. Of a population of 30,000 to 35,000, one third work in or around the town centre. Cookstown is therefore a significant employer as a geographical location, and the retail sector is a significant employer.

The Chairperson:
I am sorry to interrupt you, Mr McCreesh. Is that figure of 30% roughly commensurate with other towns west of the Bann?

Mr McCreesh:
Unfortunately, Chairperson, I suggest that it is slightly higher. I would need to do the maths, but I suspect, based on my knowledge of the west, that Cookstown is outperforming other towns in Mid Ulster as a retail destination. We believe that the town is established as the retail centre of Mid Ulster — the parliamentary constituency — comprising Magherafelt, Cookstown and Dungannon.

We have been punching above our weight for the past eight or nine years. We have enacted a strong, comprehensive, effective and aggressive marketing and promotional campaign to build the base of the town, develop the independent retail traders in the town, and ensure that the brand names that are currently going elsewhere come into Cookstown. They have done so in big numbers, and, as you said, Chairperson, there are pros and cons. It is a very delicate balance, and, like everyone else, we are struggling to achieve that balance between getting the brand names in, and building and securing our independent traders. Some 60% of the businesses in the town centre are independent traders. There are traders there who have been in the town for between 80 and 120 years, and we want to maintain them. I want my children and my grandchildren to be going to those businesses in 30 or 40 years’ time. That is the challenge that we face. That said, we recognise that neither you, I, nor anyone else will change purchasing behaviour. Consumer trends and shopping trends are changing, and we are trying to change with them, but, at the same time, we are trying to secure and maintain the economic base and our establishment as a retail town.

We established the Cookstown town centre forum in 2002. Like many town centre forums or partnerships, its 21 members comprise councillors, private-sector representatives, people from the community and voluntary sectors, and others. Our first task was to employ a manager. The Council invested in that task, and we were fortunate to recruit Terry Scullion. We developed a 10- to 12-year strategy for the town centre in 2003, encompassing promotion, infrastructure, environmental improvements, retail and accessibility — all the issues that have to be examined in order to ensure that a town centre works. Minister Hanson — who I believe was the Minister with responsibility for this Committee’s Department at that time — launched the strategy with great pomp and ceremony. We invigorated the town and created some momentum, and the private sector came on board. To date, we have been genuinely successful in delivering the strategy.

The problem is that the financial support that we have received since then has gone, and I want to bring that to the Committee’s attention. I am concerned that when, particularly, the public sector secures private-sector buy-in and creates momentum, there must be delivery.

We have delivered on part of our strategy. Our concern, which is shared by the town’s elected councillors, is that we do not have the resources to finish the job. When the strategy is completed, we will have to establish a new one. That is where the Department can come in as a leader.

Bearing in mind the town centre’s issues and problems, we need leadership from central Government. We can only do so much at a local level in our towns and villages; you have experience of that, Chairperson. Whether that leadership comes from DSD or DETI, I do not know, but at the moment, various Departments are dipping their toes in the water regarding town-centre regeneration, and some Departments are responsible for various elements. I know that Government works in that way, and that is the way it has to be, but there is a significant lack of co-ordination and cohesion at central Government level. That is having a detrimental effect, and reduces our ability to make things happen at a local level, particularly in the west.

We could talk all day about the west, the east, and about urban and rural issues. I have already talked about the significant amount of employment that Cookstown provides. A successful provincial town that is performing well and creating employment and wealth has a massive impact on rural areas.

Town-centre investment benefits urban and rural areas. Many of the 3,000 workers that I talked about are rural employees; they live in rural areas, and are farmers’ sons and daughters, and so on.

A healthy town centre has a significant spin-off effect for rural communities. That was clear in my area of Mid Ulster in the 1970s and 1980s when our towns were on their knees and not performing. The rural areas also felt that pain. Therefore, that is two sides of the same coin. I want to ensure that people are clear that urban and rural issues are interrelated, particularly in the west, where provincial towns play that critical role.

The document that we provided outlines all the schemes that we have invested in, including town-centre promotion and marketing initiatives; a town-centre health check and baseline study; shop-front painting schemes; and Living over the Shop schemes, all of which we are currently spearheading at pace and driving forward energetically. As a local authority and a small council, we are investing as much as possible in those schemes. There has been much buy-in, and we are outperforming Derry and Lisburn in the Living over the Shop scheme. We are happy with that. The difficulty is that, as a small local authority, we have limited resources. We are now at the point when our ability to keep the momentum going is basically at an end.

Philip Faithful talked about Strabane’s need for money to employ a manager. In Cookstown, we were fortunate in that we submitted a bid through Cookstown’s local economic development strategy. Furthermore, through the EU building sustainable prosperity programme, we received a 50% grant to employ Terry Scullion. As a council, we matched that funding. We also received support from that programme for environmental-improvement schemes and to pay professional fees, and so on. That funding ended with the programme in 2007.

I have been vocal about such issues with DETI officials. The Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment was in Cookstown a number of weeks ago, and I also bent his ear on those issues. I am bringing this matter to the Committee’s attention because co-operation among Departments is required in order to address the issue of town-centre regeneration.

Local authorities are being invited to submit bids to the new European sustainable-competitiveness programme for Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, town-centre regeneration is ineligible. Previously, we could access such programmes to seek investment in our town centres; however, they say that because of the Lisbon agenda, their focus must be on small-business start-ups, which I understand. We agree with, and invest in heavily in, business start-ups. I have no issues with small businesses, or with business growth that focuses on innovation and research and development. However, at best, only 1% to 5% of businesses in the west meet the criteria of the new programme. The argument is that we have to build that base, and I also agree with that. However, as I said, town centres are now ineligible for funds from the programme.

Minister Dodds launched our local economic development strategy three weeks ago. That strategy includes a whole section on town-centre regeneration. No elements of that part of the strategy will be eligible under the new European sustainable-competitiveness programme.

We are talking about town-centre promotion, town-centre marketing, and support for the council and the town centre forum to employ a town-centre manager. We either invest in our town centres or we do not. Central Government collectively must come together and give it due credence or not. I suggest to you, Chairman, as someone from the west, that you understand the impact that town centres have on urban and rural areas, on districts, and even on subregions. The central Government programmes should be negotiated in a way that allows investment to go to the areas where it is most needed.

Mr Terry Scullion (Cookstown District Council):
I would like to acknowledge the efforts of DSD staff who are involved in our town-centre forum and work with the council and the forum on a regular basis. Given that there is limited structured policy in DSD for urban and town-centre regeneration and, by their own admission, there is a lack of urban-regeneration expertise in some cases, they are very good.

From a Cookstown perspective, many of the DSD interventions are too narrowly focused, ad hoc, and often involve single-driven issues that are not necessarily based on key performance indicators that are pertinent to a town centre, nor is intervention measured using such indicators.

Examples of that are comprehensive development schemes, town centre master planning and urban development grants — and Cookstown has not been able to avail of any of those schemes.

The witnesses from Strabane referred to the issue of DSD’s direct consultation with local communities and key stakeholders in urban regeneration, and that could be improved to bolster the health of the town-centre economy. Many of DSD’s support initiatives are exclusively focused on neighbourhood renewal initiatives and that narrow focus does not address the wider urban and social economic issues from a town-centre perspective. Although Cookstown district as a whole is classed as the sixth most deprived district in Northern Ireland, it is not a neighbourhood renewal area.

Adrian McCreesh referred to the concept that town centres play a vital role in the economic activity of Northern Ireland with regard to jobs and wealth creation, not to mention the community cohesion that can be developed through those initiatives, and that is often overlooked by the lack of joined-up government. DETI, through the European programmes branch, has funded many of the town-centre regeneration initiatives or former town-centre regeneration strategies. However, DETI has now walked away from town-centre regeneration and left it to someone in central Government to pick up where it left off. It now appears that DSD holds the central remit, and there is an expectation that DSD will support implementation of town centre regeneration strategies.

Another example of the lack of joined-up government is the delay in implementing PPS 5, which has been bandied about for quite some time. That is a critical retail policy that Cookstown — and many other town centres — could do with. I hope that that will move forward in the not-too-distant future.

At a strategic level, I question DSD’s funding commitments to the main urban centres. Although many of its documents and publications consistently recognise the significant benefit that town centres and town-centre partnerships play as an effective method of engagement with local stakeholders, it will fund only our two main cities — in the north-west and Belfast — at the expense of other regional towns across Northern Ireland.

Another area that ties in nicely with the Committee’s inquiry is the EDAW consultants’ report of 2000 into the reinvigoration of town centres, which was issued in 2002 and commissioned by the Department of the Environment. It stated that:

“Town centres have a role that extends far beyond places in which people shop and transact business. They are, literally and metaphorically, at that heart of the communities they serve. The importance of town centres is therefore not simply their commercial viability but also their contribution as a location for jobs, services, community development, marketing and promotion.”

I will not go into the details of the report. Nevertheless, it contained 27 valid recommendations, some of which are very pertinent to this inquiry and, to a large extent, many of them have not, at this stage, been implemented or come to fruition for some reason or another.

We would like to see DSD move the situation forward by, first of all, putting in place a strategic framework of policy for town-centre regeneration. We look to DSD as the main Department to take forward regeneration initiatives. There must be a clear demonstration of a joined-up approach to town-centre regeneration through clear and purposeful policy, based on consultation with key urban-regeneration stakeholders locally and across Northern Ireland. Single-issue intervention can be ad hoc in how funding is administered to town centres. Perhaps one of the ways to redress that would be for each town to have an economic assessment or health check carried out on it, rather than the current ad hoc approach, and that should be based on some form of strong socio-economic information, rather than purely on disadvantage and poverty, preferably assisting both performing and underperforming towns.

Cookstown’s area plan will run until 2010. There is no legislative requirement for DSD to be consulted on area plans, but that would be especially welcome, particularly when it comes to town-centre master planning or comprehensive development schemes. We are halfway through our town-centre regeneration strategy, although we have several initiatives still to implement. However, it would be useful for DSD to buy into that process with a view to localised 10-year master plan, or to feed into our current strategy to take the broadest view possible of town-centre regeneration, marketing and promotion, environmental improvements, accessibility, transport, infrastructure, vacancy management, etc, which will ultimately feed into local operational plans that have local stakeholder buy-in and are relevant to the needs of town centres. The policy and planning framework should be supported with long-term budgeting and delivery time frames.

The other issue that is becoming more pertinent in town centres, particularly in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland is business improvement districts. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that does not have the legislation to create business improvement districts. Although such legislation might not apply to all town centres and might need to be customised, it would be a welcome intervention by Government.

The Chairperson:
You covered a lot of ground in a short time. It seems that Cookstown is endeavouring to tell its success story. However, as Cookstown is different in layout to Strabane, some of the advantages that apply to Cookstown might not be easily transferred. Your figures state that vacant and derelict business properties decreased by 27% — how much of that decrease do you attribute to the change in rates, or — like most things — is a combination of factors responsible?

Mr McCreesh:
There is a combination of factors. The figures cover up to 2007, and we are very pleased with them. However, although we are proud of what we have achieved — you are correct that the statistics are accurate and have been independently validated — people are feeling the pain. We could have filled the public gallery today with a delegation of retailers, but we did not want the focus of the meeting to be on their plight. Our retailers are feeling the pain, and if an analysis were carried out, it would show that the number of empty premises would have increased on the 2007 number — in the past eight months, there has been a notable increase in the number of empty retail premises.

You are correct that Cookstown is fortunate structurally — it has the longest and widest main street in Ireland, it is busy, vibrant and has vitality. However, empty premises are very visible, and they are increasing in number. Unfortunately, many of those who are vacating premises are independent retailers who have been in the town for a long time. Consumer patterns have been affected by out-of-town shopping centres, the increase in Internet shopping, the increase in rental costs and the huge burden of rates — newsagents have to sell a lot of newspapers to cover their rates bills.

The Chairperson:
There is a debate to be had about independent retailers versus multinationals, and the location of shopping centres on the edge of town versus the town centre, as much a Cookstown phenomenon.

Mr McCreesh:
That is right, but the clock cannot be turned back — we are where we are. A large shopping development, which is located just out of town, has recently opened. It houses all of the major retailers, and the independent retailers stop me at every opportunity to tell me that it is killing their businesses. However, we are where we are, and the legislation is as it is — as the local authority for a small provincial town, we welcome all investment into our town and we try to get that investment as close to the town centre as possible. We made that decision on the fundamental premise that if the multinationals did not invest in Cookstown, they would do so in Dungannon or Magherafelt.

The Chairperson:
Everyone works on that premise.

Mr McCreesh:
We cannot change the past, but we can influence the future, for example through draft PPS 5. You may have asked the representative from the Strabane Chamber of Commerce whether, when proposals for such shopping centres are received in future, the starting point for planners will be to ask whether it can be developed in the town centre. If not, why not? That should be the starting point for the planners, rather than just building such shopping centres out of town — they should examine what is available in the town centre, what empty premises are available, and whether the plans could it be incorporated. That is how to address such situations in the future.

I mentioned the removal of DETI funding. Provincial town centres are unsure of DSD funding because the criteria is very unclear — towns are selected at random, which is a problem that the Committee must address. In addition, the rural development programme excludes towns, which means anywhere with a population over 4,500 people. Therefore, provincial towns in the west cannot tap into the rural development programme — where are we to go? Other than raising rates, there is no way to raise money apart from a cross-border initiative through ICBAN, which people in the west have tapped into.

INTERREG IVa will perhaps offer major opportunities. If members get the opportunity to talk to those responsible for INTERREG IVa and the Special EU Programmes Body, we would be very grateful if you could encourage them to support town-centre regeneration.

Mr F McCann:
You covered so much in your presentation that it is hard to find anything to ask about. The previous witnesses were from Strabane, and I asked them about the leadership — or possibly lack of leadership — shown by Departments. Has the Department made any attempt to draw the strings of the strategy together or to work with the council and others to develop it?

Mr McCreesh:
The Department has worked with us on very small specific projects, such as marketing campaigns, and so on. Do not get me wrong; we are grateful for that support. We have developed a relationship with certain individuals in the Department simply to learn how they do business. However, there has been no strategic approach to developing a master plan for Cookstown. Our achievements are in spite of the absence of such an approach.

The Chairperson:
Thank you very much for attending today’s meeting. I am sure that we will be in contact with you again.