Evolution, not revolution

ONCE again, our Town is under threat.

Not from the French this time, trying to regain their Iles Normandes, nor from royalists under siege in Castle Cornet, nor from Germans wanting to shore up an Atlantic Wall. The imminent danger for our Town is that wolf in sheep’s clothing known as good intent.

Tasked with its regeneration, the States Development & Planning Authority commissioned London-based Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design Ltd to prepare a development brief, focusing specifically on the Lower Pollet, South Esplanade, Mignot Plateau, Le Bordage and Mansell Street. The initial consultation period has just ended and once the draft is finalised, there will be a further round of consultation during six weeks in the spring or summer, which islanders are urged to participate in.

Tibbalds is an experienced and motivated company with a library of case studies that include a strategic vision for the seafront between Hastings Old Town and Bexhill, one of the area’s best assets, and showcasing Weymouth as an archetypal English seaside resort in time to host the 2012 Olympic sailing events, for which Tibbalds was shortlisted for a planning excellence award.

Coupled with this is the States’ ongoing Seafront Enhancement Programme for sites such as La Vallette, North Plantation and the Guernsey Information Centre. Ideas have already come forward from within our community and others have been mooted by dipping a toe in the seafront water.

All this aims to bring added vibrancy into our town centre for the benefit not just of the shops but of the community at large, although the onslaught of online shopping is jeopardising the viability and sustainability of retail buildings heavy laden with rent, rates, insurance and service costs.

Creasey’s director Jonathan Creasey is rallying shoppers to spend locally because it feeds back into the island’s economy. ‘Every Guernsey pound spent off-island is gone forever, there’s no inward investment.’

Creasey’s is a cherished mainstay of our Town, looking to expand into the former HSBC building, having just extended its Bridge shop. The family firm can trace its history in Guernsey back to 1899, when Benjamin Creasey established a draper business in Mill Street. Jonathan Creasey is his great-great-grandson and a member of a 30-member strong Guernsey Retail Group bringing a cohesive approach to the retail experience by making Town more vibrant and accessible. ‘Retail needs to be looked at as a leisure activity,’ he says, ‘and a chance for social interaction for people. We also want to improve staff recruitment by selling retail as a career choice.’

Guernsey remains an attractive outlet for national high street chains and outdated business models may be the reason for those who have departed, such as Beghin’s shoe shop. Wing Lai of Watts Property Consultants spoke with commitment last week of ongoing, behind-the-scenes negotiations for vacant landmark shops.

Parking is the perennial problem but traffic dynamics will change significantly as more offices move out of Town, having less need to be there, which could increase Town’s lifestyle and residential footfall, with the blessing of planners. There is currently talk of a yoga studio in a vacant first-floor office, subject to change-of-use permission.

There is no doubt about Town’s vibrant restaurant and bar scene and islanders have also rediscovered their affection for Market Square, although this has not yet extended into Mill Street and beyond, as hoped, and shoppers and shopkeepers alike sadly decry the Old Quarter’s lost charm.

Its regrettable sense of desolation began half a century ago when leases for shop buildings in general were widely termed as full-repairing, making the tenant responsible for maintenance and repairs. Most of Mill Street’s buildings are more than 200 years old and built with shallow foundations on a hill, backing into higher ground behind and, in the majority, Heritage listed. It is too simple to question the rationale of full-repairing leases for such small shops in high-maintenance buildings because that was the accepted norm at the time. Boutique shops were trending in the ’60s and ’70s but the business model evaporated when overheads topped turnover.

Shops on the south-east side of Mill Street have largely benefited from incorporation into office and prime residential development, fronting onto Le Bordage. If their neighbours across the road and in Mansell Street are to be rejuvenated it will require our States to invite expressions of interest for a four-way partnership between interested owners, architects, committed developers and States planners who will direct purpose-built and purpose-led wholesale redevelopment that could include larger shop areas and possibly a boutique hotel, with the strict external framework proviso of superior quality materials and appropriate design.

The potential uplift in value should be sufficient incentive for owners and developers to embark upon a joint venture, especially with added tax incentives from the States if the work is completed on time, on budget and by local workforces. This allowance would soon be recapped by the inward investment Jonathan Creasey spoke of and is an inducement regularly and effectively operated in Sweden.

Mill Street is one of the many historic quirks that add to our Town’s inherent charm, which does not mean Town should remain a museum piece, but any regeneration projects must also note mistakes made in Jersey’s seafront development in St Helier. Their development of the Waterfront area has by their own admission been mired in controversy for more than a decade. In 2008, the design of the Radisson Blu Hotel drew such criticism, and even mockery, that the architects responsible were awarded the Carbuncle Cup, given each year to the project deemed by magazine Building Design to be the ugliest built across the British Isles.

Guernsey’s beautiful harbour town has been 2,000 years in the making. It is our invaluable legacy and the jewel in the Channel Islands’ crown that must not be blighted with ill-considered good intent.