Success shows town doesn’t need shopping centre

So now we know. The scaremongering by Wilson Bowden and the council’s officers that Leamington would lose out to neighbouring towns if the Chandos Street scheme did not go ahead is claptrap and always was.
By The Newsroom
Published 7th Jul 2013, 08:45 BST

In fact the position is worse than that because your reports last week reveal that it is the independent shops that are major elements in Leamington’s retail draw. The Wilson Bowden scheme would not be aimed at independent shops but would seek to attract multiples, many of them from existing shops in the town being offered rent free or low rent periods. If the scheme went ahead, it could well be disastrous for many of Leamington’s independent shops.

I also wonder what the logic is of the council permitting the Debenhams store to be out of town at the retail park. This must surely have been one of the last hopes of Wilson Bowden to obtain an acceptable anchor store for Chandos Street. Is there now any retailer left out there who would wish to provide such a store? I doubt it.

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Can the council please drop their mantra that there is no plan B. I have written previously suggesting housing with an affordable housing element, offices (possibly for the council themselves), a bus station replacing the mayhem in Upper Parade or leave the site alone. It is functioning satisfactorily as a surface car park at the moment. Or is it the case that the council has contracted with Wilson Bowden to give them a lien over the site for a number of years?

Geoff Wilson, Arlington Mews, Leamington

Related topics:LeamingtonDebenhams