9/5/2008

News in Farnborough

Shoppers returning to centre

Shoppers are starting to come back to Farnborough town centre, new figures show.

With work continuing on the town centre redevelopment, visitor numbers to Kingsmead and the remaining part of Queensmead are up compared with last year, according to its owners.

Bosses at the separately-owned Princes Mead centre have reported an increase in customer numbers.

The increase bucks the trend of a national decline in retail figures, as shoppers start to feel a hit in their wallets due to the slowing economy.

The apparent renaissance of Queensmead and Kingsmead – re-branded The Meads earlier this year — shows that people living in the town have regained confidence in Farnborough, according to the new centre manager.

Andy Wynn, who took control of The Meads in January, said that with a large area of Queensmead now demolished to make way for new shops, flats and leisure units, the remaining open areas looked less desolate than before the bulldozers rolled in.

“There is more stability now,” he told the Farnborough News. “The way it was before, with a lot of empty shops down one end, it was in a right state.

“Now a lot of the shops have moved down to one end of Queensmead and more have moved into Kingsmead. People can see progress with the redevelopment, and although it is a long way from being finished, what we do have is a nicer shopping environment for people to visit. It is not all bright and shiny yet — but it will be.”

Mr Wynn, who joined The Meads management in January from Festival Place in Basingstoke, said he would use his experience at other shopping centres in the region to reinvigorate Farnborough while building work is under way.

He has risen through the ranks of shopping centre management, starting off as a security guard at The Oracle centre in Reading eight years ago before moving to Basingstoke.

“People know what you are going to get in Farnborough,” he said. “You are not going to get all the big high street names yet. But my job is to generate the knowledge around Farnborough that we are still open for business and things are going well.

“Not everyone is doing fantastically well in the current economic environment as you would expect, but there are more doing well than not doing well. We are working hard with the ones that are struggling to try and help them.”

Footfall at The Meads increased by 1.36% in the first quarter of the year, in contrast with national figures showing a 0.4% dip over the same period.

People are also taking advantage of more shops opening for Sunday trading, according to The Meads owner KPI.

Karen Ritchie, store manager at Dorothy Perkins, said trade had “taken off” on Sundays, while Mark Halls, assistant manager at Wilkinson’s, said takings were at their highest per customer on Sunday.

Sainsbury’s began opening on Sunday for the first time in March, while hairdresser Bumbles is also trading across the whole weekend, KPI said.

Princes Mead, which is owned by Standard Life Investments, also reported an increase in customer numbers compared to last year.

The managers at both the shopping centres said they were now working more closely for the benefit of the whole town centre.

David Pickett, centre manager of Princes Mead, said: “There is renewed optimism about Farnborough as a whole, not just Princes Mead, Queensmead or Kingsmead. Things are starting to pick up.

“We realise that if Farnborough does well, we are a part of that. It is all for the greater good.”

Despite the current upsurge in customer numbers, the town centre can still be a grim place to visit, according to David Jennings, chairman of the newly formed Farn-borough Society.

One of the civic society’s aims is to help businesses in the town, and the current shopping experience is blighted by the poor state of the Kingsmead multi-storey car park, Mr Jennings said.

“The car park has been badly vandalised again. The lights have been smashed and the foot wells on the stairs are smelly when you go from floor to floor,” he said. “It is not a very friendly place.

“When you go shopping you expect a certain standard and I think it could become a very frightening place after dark. It is no fault of the owners, but the vandals who cause the damage.”

Mr Wynn said lights and windows had been smashed in a recent spate of attacks at the car park.

“It is very disappointing that there has been an upturn in vandalism in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “We are working with the police to stop that and we want our residents and customers to feel safe.”

The car park is due to be refurbished as part of the town centre redevelopment, with the intention to bring safety, lighting and cleanliness up to higher standards, he said.

The revamp is due to bring a new cinema, hotel, flats and 30 shops by Christmas 2009.

First printed in: Farnborough News and Mail