Further to minute 22 (5 September 2012), the Interim Strategic Director Regeneration and Environment provided an update at the request of the Chair on Wirral’s retail centres and the initiatives that were being pursued to support them. He also gave a presentation, which provided information on the development of the Trader Toolkit and Town Centre Action Plans. Empty Shops were both a local and national problem and he referred to the significant impact on town centres of the reported closures or threatened closures of Comet, Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster stores.

The Interim Strategic Director referred also to the approval by the Council on 15 October 2012 of the Proposed Submission Draft Core Strategy for Consultation, which proposed a network of 23 centres in the Borough that had provided the basis of the Strategy and Action Planning work. He reported upon progress with the first phase of the detailed action planning work and indicated that each Action Plan would follow a common format. Detailed maps would be produced for each area and he set out the range of issues that would be addressed by the action plans. Members referred to changing shopping trends, in particular the increase in online shopping and commented that if shopping centres were to contract, as seemed inevitable, it was important for this to be effectively managed.

Resolved –

(1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That a report be presented to the next meeting of the Committee upon the development of the Trader Toolkit and upon progress in relation to the following centres that are the subject of the first phase of detailed action planning work –

·  Liscard

·  New Ferry

·  Seacombe (Poulton Road/Borough Road)

·  New Brighton (Seabank Road)

·  Wallasey Village

·  Irby