Meeting documents

Councillor Mrs Ward

Cabinet Member for Civic Amenities

 

To consider the attached report.

Council received a report which set out the challenges facing Kingsbury and Market Square and that outlined plans to bring forward improvement schemes for both spaces and the associated costs.  This regeneration of the Aylesbury town centre was reflected in the Aylesbury Town Centre Plan (published in 2014) and in the draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan.

 

It was abundantly clear that the demand for physical retail space was changing across the UK and almost every operator including Marks & Spencer’s and John Lewis partnerships were committed to undertaking portfolio reviews.  Others such as House of Fraser, were already part way through that process and it was well known that the Aylesbury branch would likely close at some point.  Whilst some of this change was offset by big box operators such as B&Q and Screwfix opening smaller, high street formats, users of town centres were undoubtedly looking to their towns (particularly those the size of Aylesbury), to provide a more social experience.  National spend on casual dining and the increase in the number of restaurants and cafes had been phenomenal and whilst the dining out market had also seen a softening in recent months, spend generally in this area continued to grow, with shopping being only part of the reason to visit.  Aylesbury was no exception to this trend and had seen a number of new cafes and restaurants open in recent years, with more opening as part of The Exchange development.

 

The increase in people looking to town centres to combine a food and entertainment experience had also been exceptional. Industry reports suggested that 40% of footfall based their decision to visit a town based on the choice of dining options fuelling a significant national growth in both the  number of restaurant and café openings and breadth of cuisine available.  In the last twelve months, this rapid expansion had led to a softening of the dining out market  with some rationalising by well known brands such as Jamie’s, but new brands continue to enter the market.  Spend overall generally in this area continued to grow.  Aylesbury was no exception to this trend and had seen a number of new cafes and restaurants open in recent years, with more opening as part of The Exchange development.

 

The growth of town centre living was changing what a town needed to offer to sustain successful residential communities.  In the last five years, 89,140 offices in the UK have been converted to living accommodation.  In Aylesbury town centre, former offices such as Kingfisher House and Friars Square have been successfully converted to residential and proved extremely popular. The office building above QDs at the bottom of High Street had a permitted development for 110 apartments and the 47 apartments in The Exchange development were on sale.

 

The importance of creating a great environment was critical to the success of attracting people to a town whether to shop, socialise, live or work.  It also impacted greatly on a town’s ability to secure new retailers, restaurants etc as public space helped form first impressions of a potential investor and give a sense of the character of a town and its wellbeing.

 

A theme central to the entire Town Centre Plan, was the recognition that Aylesbury needed to improve the quality of its environment and public space to help create the experience people were looking for whether living, visiting or working.  Whilst it was difficult to quantify a direct financial return on investment from public space improvements, there was strong supporting evidence which showed that it could deliver both intrinsic and non-economic benefit, and these were set out in the Committee report.

 

While good progress had been made in Aylesbury on delivering a range of public space improvements including decorative colourful planters and agreeing a parking order for Kingsbury to enable enforcement of illegal parking on the central area, a range of street entertainment and events in Market Square (such as Aylesbury on Sea, Whizzfizz and the Christmas lights switch on), these were small but incremental improvements.  The two largest public spaces – Kingsbury and Market Square, still had operational and aesthetic challenges which required significant schemes to come forward to make a real difference.

 

Kingsbury

 

The background and context of Kingsbury was detailed in the report.  Use of Kingsbury had changed and whilst it still retained many fine buildings it had struggled in recent times to attract the footfall of its former years and to find its own identity.  In 2004, a Government funded scheme to improve the public space had attract private investment in the commercial units and made it more integral to the retail circuit.  However, this had not brought about the hoped for transformation.  The on-going decline in footfall had led to new challenges and an increase in anti-social behaviour ranging from parking on the central area to public drinking outside the agreed areas. Much effort had also been made by AVDC and its partners to address these issues, but the overall feedback was that more significant investment was needed to enable Kingsbury to thrive and become a greater asset to the town.

 

The Action Plan for Kingsbury (taken from the Town Centre Plan) was attached as Appendix 2, which had a mini vision for the area to "create a more attractive environment for residents, visitors and businesses and improve it as the gateway to the old town."  A number of the actions listed had already been completed.  However, one of the key outstanding actions was to, "form a stakeholder group to identify options for improving the physical environment, looking at seating, lighting, surfaces etc so that better use of the open space can be made all year round."

 

Some preliminary work had already been undertaken by the Town Centre Manager to gauge interest by the business community in a scheme being brought forward.  This engagement had been on the basis that whilst AVDC (working potentially with BCC who own the highway around the central area which was failing in parts), might be able to deliver enhancements to the public space.  The land and buildings also needed to be considered to achieve the best outcome for this relatively small area.  This meant that the investment and commitment from the 40 landlord and tenants in Kingsbury would be needed as well.

 

The potential to transform Kingsbury through a joint approach was significant and any stakeholder engagement would also extend to other key partners such as the Aylesbury Town Council, Thames Valley Police and the Aylesbury Old Town Residents’ Association.  Some initial thought had been given as to what the future look and feel of Kingsbury could be taking into account the need to reduce the reliance on retail and ensure that Kingsbury complemented other areas of the Town Centre.  An initial concept based on bringing the Roald Dahl theme from the museum in the adjacent area, to Kingsbury (both land and buildings) had been suggested and been well received by landlords and tenants.  However, as part of the development of the concept, significant more work would need to be undertaken with stakeholders to ensure that the vision was shared and jointly owned.  Any early ideas would also need to be supported by Heritage and Planning Officers before they were developed in detail to form a planning application.

 

Aylesbury Market Square

 

The background and context of Market Square was detailed in the report.  Market Square was still a very popular space and was home to four markets a week – the Vintage & Craft Bazaar, general, foodie Friday, special markets, concerts, Christmas light switch-on, the Christmas Carol concert, Whizzfizz and more.  However, despite its popularity, the square was constrained by key issues including accessibility (cobbled square) and poor infrastructure which collectively prevented all of the  space from being used for a wider range of activities.

 

The Action Plan for Market Square (taken from the Town Centre Plan) was attached as Appendix 3, which had a mini vision for the area to ""make more of the area’s presence as a key retail, catering and leisure hub".

 

As with Kingsbury, a number of the actions were already underway or complete.  For  example, significant investment had taken place to improve  the markets.  New stalls, and the development of the Vintage & Craft Bazaar and the foodie Friday markets, had all helped to revitalise the popularity of the town’s historic market tradition.  However, the one key action required was for a review of the public realm to ""create a more attractive and usable environment for shopping, eating, drinking and leisure (including large scale events and socialising).

 

The Action Plan also stated that the review should include looking at better links between areas; vehicle, pedestrian and events use, and the public space (including layout, surfaces, street furniture, signage, lighting and electricity supply).  The brief would take into account these requirements and the specific challenges as set out in the report, alongside the requirement to retain the square’s heritage look and feel.

 

Indicative costs of the improvements

 

Members were informed that developing the concept to implementation of a scheme had a number of phases which would be applicable to both spaces. The key phases were:

·                    inception, concept preparation and stakeholder engagement.

·                    design development to planning.

·                    tender and construction pack

·                    delivery and project management.

 

Each phase carried costs which included the costs of securing specialist advice.  Much of this advice would be needed for both spaces although with Kingsbury there would be an additional requirement to develop a Design Guide for the buildings.

 

Both spaces would be considered together to ensure a cohesive approach to the improvements and also to deliver some economies of scale in terms of commissioning the various elements of work.

 

The fee and capital costs of both schemes were only indicative at this stage.  However, they had been estimated as:

 

Collective fee costs for Kingsbury and Market Square: £180,000

Capital costs of delivery – Kingsbury: £2m

Capital costs of delivery – Market Square: £2m

Contingency: £320,000

Total:  £4.5m

 

This would be funded from 3 sources:

·                     existing section 106 funding allocated to Aylesbury Town Centre but not to any specific scheme:  £1m.

·                     Heritage Lottery Funding townscape grants: £2m (potential funding source).

·                     New Homes Bonus: £1.5m

 

At this stage there was no guarantee that the bid for Heritage Lottery funding would be completely or partially successful.  It was proposed that any gap in funding from the lottery would be met by additional new homes bonus monies.

 

The timescales would not be known until the specialist advice had been procured.  However, as an indication, phases (i) to (iii) were likely to take until at least Spring 2019 to complete enabling procurement for the delivery in Summer 2019., with construction starting later in 2019.  Depending on the nature of the finally approved schemes, it was probable that work would be phased rather than carried out at the same time to minimise disruption.

 

The Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 9 July, 2018, had considered the Improvements Schemes.  Scrutiny’s comments had been reported to Cabinet who had considered them in making a recommendation to full Council.

 

It was proposed by Councillor Mrs Ward, seconded by Councillor A Cole, that:-

 

(1)          That the plans to bring forward improvements schemes for Kingsbury and Market Square be endorsed in principle.

 

(2)          That approval be given, in principle, for a package of funding in support of the proposals, as set out below, and to make the necessary amendments to the capital programme.

 

(i)            Use of Section 106 unallocated funds for Aylesbury Town Centre: £1m.

 

(ii)           An application for Heritage Funding Townscape grants: £2m (potential funding source).

 

(iii)          Use of New Homes Bonus: £1.5m (to be increased to meet any shortfall from the application for Heritage Lottery Funding).

 

(3)          That approval be given to immediately release £100,000 to enable the procurement of a public realm architect to be appointed to develop concepts for both schemes in consultation with stakeholders.

 

(4)          That the concepts and indicative costs of delivering both schemes be reported back to scrutiny and Cabinet, with Cabinet given authority to release the next phase of funding to enable the concepts to be developed to detailed planning application stage.

 

(5)          That Cabinet be given authority to release the remaining funding of up to £4.4m to deliver the schemes once planning permission was granted.

 

The proposal was opened up to debate.  It was thereupon proposed by Councillor Monger and seconded by Councillor Christensen:

 

That the recommendations be amended to read as follows (the proposed changes/additions being shown in emboldened typeface, the proposed deletions being struck through):-

 

(1)          That the plans proposal to bring forward improvements schemes for Kingsbury and Market Square be endorsed in principle.

 

(2)          That approval be given, in principle, for a package of funding in support of the proposals, as set out below, and to make the necessary amendments to the capital programme.

 

(i)            Use of Section 106 unallocated funds for Aylesbury Town Centre: £1m.

 

(ii)           An application for Heritage Funding Townscape grants: £2m (potential funding source).

 

(iii)          Use of New Homes Bonus: to a maximum of £1.5m subject to the agreement of the NHB Grants Panel (to be increased to meet any shortfall from the application for Heritage Lottery Funding).

 

(3)          That approval be given to immediately release up to £100,000 to enable the procurement of a public realm architect to be appointed to develop concepts for both schemes in consultation with commercial stakeholders and Aylesbury Town Council.

 

(4)          That the concepts and indicative costs of delivering both schemes be reported back to Council scrutiny and Cabinet, with Cabinet given authority for consideration and subject to approval to release the next phase of funding to enable the concepts to be developed to detailed planning application stage.

 

(5)          Cabinet be given authority to release the remaining funding of up to £4.4m to deliver the schemes once planning permission was granted.  That subject to planning consent being obtained, a draft contract for the completion of the project be subjected to consideration by Scrutiny Committee, Cabinet and Council."

 

Upon being put to the meeting the amendment was declared to be LOST.

 

During further debate on the original proposal it was then proposed by Councillor Mills and seconded by Councillor Stuchbury that recommendation (2)(iii) be amended to read as follows:-

 

"(2)(iii)  Use of New Homes Bonus: to a maximum of £1.5m, with any increase in the amount of NHB funds to be first approved by Cabinet."

 

The proposer and seconder of the original proposal agreed to update it to take account of the amendment to recommendation (2)(iii).  The original proposal, as amended, was put to the meeting and it was declared to be CARRIED.  Accordingly, it was

 

RESOLVED –

 

(1)          That the plans to bring forward improvements schemes for Kingsbury and Market Square be endorsed in principle.

 

(2)          That approval be given, in principle, for a package of funding in support of the proposals, as set out below, and to make the necessary amendments to the capital programme.

 

(i)            Use of Section 106 unallocated funds for Aylesbury Town Centre: £1m.

 

(ii)           An application for Heritage Funding Townscape grants: £2m (potential funding source).

 

(iii)          Use of New Homes Bonus: to a maximum of £1.5m, with any increase in the amount of NHB funds to be first approved by Cabinet.

 

(3)          That approval be given to immediately release £100,000 to enable the procurement of a public realm architect to be appointed to develop concepts for both schemes in consultation with stakeholders.

 

(4)          That the concepts and indicative costs of delivering both schemes be reported back to scrutiny and Cabinet, with Cabinet given authority to release the next phase of funding to enable the concepts to be developed to detailed planning application stage.

 

(5)          That Cabinet be given authority to release the remaining funding of up to £4.4m to deliver the schemes once planning permission was granted.