Let's talk about our towns

Let’s talk about our towns 1. Stockton Town Centre

Billingham

Ingleby Barwick

Norton

Stockton

Thornaby

Yarm

September 2019

We’re very proud to be home to six towns.

• Billingham • Ingleby Barwick • Norton • Stockton • Thornaby • Yarm Before the end of the year, we’ll be coming to talk to you about each and every one of them.

We’re starting here with the first of these conversations, which is about a vision for Stockton Town Centre.

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Ask anybody what a town centre is about and they’ll almost certainly say ‘the shops’.

Until a few short years ago, this was true. After all, town centres were built on the very concept of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops and they dominated the nation’s high streets for more than 200 years.

Such fine tradition inevitably conjures up memories of a golden era when high streets were chock full of shoppers and lined with the most famous names in retail. But those days are gone. Town centres can’t just be about ‘the shops’ any more. The rise of online and out of town shopping has made sure of that.

In the words of the straight-talking retail expert, Bill Grimsey…“there’s no point clinging on to a sentimental vision of the past – we have to start planning for a bold new world.”

To our credit, we started that process some years ago, because we saw this coming. We knew our town centres had to be places that people might choose to visit for reasons other than just shopping. The success of Teesside Park, home to lots of big names, made that obvious. It’s about our town centres complementing that offer, not competing with it.

So, even before this shift in shopping habits, we decided to invest in keeping leisure facilities, theatres, customer service centres, and libraries in our town centres.

To us, whether it’s Billingham Library, Stockton ARC or Thornaby Pavilion, it was common sense to keep attractions and services in town centres rather than relocating them elsewhere. We’ve also invested in public artwork, eye-catching lighting schemes, pleasant public spaces, and of course, a year-round events programme.

Ingleby Barwick

Yarm

But there’s so much still to do. We have six town centres in the Borough, and we firmly believe they can all thrive.

They just need a new sense of purpose. And they need our help.

That’s why, in December last year, we agreed that we would step in and take control of key sites and assets in our town centres. And we gave that pledge some serious backing by approving up to £30million of borrowing to make it happen.

Our aim? To lead and drive change ourselves because if we don’t, nobody else will. The scale and pace of change needed certainly won’t just come from the private sector – you only need look at the privately-owned shops and sites standing empty to see that.

And we’re making great progress. Since December we’ve: •

entered advanced negotiations on two potential long stay parking sites in Yarm

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provided a full-time member of staff to support Yarm Business Forum (Yarm has been shortlisted for the Great British High Street 2019 Rising Star award)

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been working to explore parking and traffic management improvements in Norton to support its vibrant night time economy

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held talks with the owners of Billingham town centre about things we can work on together to improve the town

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made progress on the construction of Ingleby Barwick’s new leisure centre

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been pushing the leaseholders of the eyesore Golden Eagle Hotel and Phoenix House buildings

Norton

Stockton Town Centre

in Thornaby to bring forward credible plans for their future •

started gearing up to support Thornaby’s bid for £25million from the Government’s new Towns Fund

In Stockton, the Borough’s biggest town centre, we’ve made particularly good progress. We’ve acquired Wellington Square, the former Post Office and Glam buildings, and now we’ve added to that with the purchase of the Castlegate Shopping Centre and Swallow Hotel.

These decisive interventions have given us control over massive parts of the town. We’ve put ourselves in the driving seat to build on what we’ve achieved to date and to shape the town’s future.

There are so many possibilities, ranging from refurbishing and repurposing Castlegate through to demolishing both the Castlegate and Swallow Hotel.

The latter option is a real stand out - it would create a huge riverside site, around three times the size of Trafalgar Square, ripe for redevelopment. That could be a real game changer, giving us a once in a generation opportunity to reconnect the town with the river.

We’ve been working up some ideas but what we really need are your views. We want to deliver what you want. We’re developing a bid for submission to the Government’s £1billion Future High Streets Fund early next year. The Fund’s aim is to support the transformation of town centres through investment in things like housing, workplaces, infrastructure and culture. We’ve already been shortlisted but now we need your views to shape our final submission.

It’s over to you now.

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Stockton Town Centre Before we go any further, it’s probably worth reminding ourselves of the progress made in Stockton already.

We’ve made a lot of changes to the town centre in recent years. Our focus throughout has been to reduce the town’s reliance on shops and increase other uses such as leisure and housing.

We’ve remodelled the High Street, making it a stage for events like SIRF, the Great North CityGames, specialist and traditional markets, Diwali-inspired festivals, and giant tea-parties. They pull in thousands of people and millions of pounds.

We’ve added fun features like the fountain, which has been a big hit with families, and the Stockton Flyer, which celebrates our famous railway heritage.

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We’ve revamped the market and encouraged a concentration of independent shops in Silver Street, some of which started life in our nearby Fountain Shopping Mall, so you could say we’re ‘growing our own’ shops!

We’ve built a new Hampton by Hilton Hotel, which is absolutely booming and attracting business travellers from across the UK and beyond.

Nearly 150 new homes will soon stand on the former Victoria Estate site. A new Lidl store is coming to the town centre. And perhaps most exciting of all, a fully-restored Globe theatre will open for business as a live music and comedy venue in November 2020, pulling in up to 200,000 visitors every year.

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A once in a generation opportunity The changes we’ve made to date have put the town in a strong position. We’re not starting from scratch here. But more change is needed to ensure the town can thrive in the future.

As you can see, thanks to our recently completed acquisition of the Castlegate shopping centre and former Swallow Hotel we’ve assembled enough key sites to really step in and take control.

We now have a once in a generation opportunity to reshape the town and make it fit for the future. It’s also an opportunity to reconnect the town with the river. Stockton has been accused of turning its back on the river over the years. We could change that.

There are so many different directions we can go in from here.

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We could refurbish and repurpose Castlegate. Or, we could demolish both the Castlegate and Swallow Hotel and redevelop a prime riverside site. We could have more homes. We could have more workplaces. We could focus on spaces for social activities that bring communities together. Or, a mixed-use development with a combination of all of these things.

We explore this further in the following pages and at the end of this document you’ll find a tear-off questionnaire that you can fill in to tell us what you think.

These are all genuinely exciting possibilities – we want to know which ones are the most attractive to you.

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We could have more homes Town centres are great places to live.

And we could create new neighbourhoods in the heart of Stockton.

They’d have a stunning riverside location, with shops, facilities and attractions like the Globe on their doorstep. What’s not to like?

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We could have more workplaces We’re all familiar with the stories about big name shops leaving town centres in recent years.

But what hasn’t been so well-documented are the stories about businesses moving in the opposite direction.

In Stockton we’ve seen solicitors’ firms, training companies and estate agents arriving to set up home here.

And we could create more workplaces in town, bringing jobs and prosperity with them.

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We could have more leisure space You only need visit Stockton High Street’s fountains on a hot sunny day to see the value of creating pleasant places where people can enjoy the simple things in life.

Children play while grown-ups chat just out of splashing range.

These kinds of social spaces bring communities together. They’re also great locations for events and activities.

In other words, it’s not all about new buildings!

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How to find out more or tell us what you think There are lots of ways to get in touch:

WWW.

You can find out more and fill in a questionnaire online at www.stockton.gov.uk/towncentres

Or pop in and see us at one of the following sessions – we’ll be at:

Wednesday 25 September

Rediscover Shop – Stockton Town Centre

11am to 3pm

Thursday 26 September

Thornaby Central Library

11am to 3pm

Saturday 28 September

Rediscover Shop – Stockton Town Centre

11am to 3pm

Monday 30 September

Billingham Library

11am to 3pm

Tuesday 1 October

Norton Library

11am to 3pm

Wednesday 2 October

Rediscover Shop – Stockton Town Centre

11am to 3pm

Thursday 3 October

Stockton Central Library

4pm to 8pm

Monday 7 October

Yarm Library

11am to 3pm

Thursday 10 October

Stockton Central Library

4pm to 8pm

TBC

Ingleby Barwick Tesco

TBC

TBC

Teesside Park

TBC

OCT

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Or, if you are part of a business, group, club or school, and you’d like us to come to you just get in touch and we’d be happy to pay you a visit.

You can call us on 01642 526498 or email us at consultationSBC@stockton.gov.uk

And remember – please get in touch with your thoughts and ideas by Monday 21 October as we need them in good time to feed into our bid to the Future High Streets Fund.