Anyone from Bury St Edmunds?

[MontyVeda]

...or any frequent visitors to BSE (sorry for that acronym, I just could be bothered to type Bury St Edmunds again... er ).

anyhow... I would appreciate your thoughts on the award winning Arc Shopping Centre

the same developers are currently trying to push forward a new development in Lancaster, which I'm not a huge fan of, so I'm interested to hear the views of those living in the shadow of The Arc.

Thanks

 

[Theseus]

I used to come from around there and go into Bury (you don't have to say the whole thing) fairly regularly. However I moved away before they built Arc.

My mum still lives nearby and she seems to like it.

Not a lot of help, but there you go.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I'm not.

Now, if everyone else is as helpful as me we'll soon wheedle out the buggers that are from Bury!

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I'm from Ippo and was impressed by the theatre that is a part of the Ark complex. Have I got that right?

 

[srw]

If so, you have my commiserations.

More helpfully, experiences of one shopping centre probably won't have a great to do with experiences of the same developer in a different place. They'll be carefully tailored to local circumstances unless they're a bunch of rank amateurs. And if they're dropping mult-millions on a shopping centre that's unlikely.

 

[nr.]

I think the most positive thing I can think to say of it is that it's inoffensive. And that's it really. It's just another identikit shopping centre dropped into place with no respect for the prevailing character of the existing town. Stand in the middle of it, and you could be anywhere. Maybe I'm just looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but I much prefer the old section of the town, and don't think that the Arc has really done anything to improve the town at all. But, to be fair, I'm probably not the audience that the development was aimed at. If you want to buy clothes, or go to Starbucks, it's probably great.

 

[4F]

Well I am just down the road and have been several times. Much prefer shopping in the old town of Bury rather than the identikit shopping centre.

 

[MontyVeda]

If so, you have my commiserations.

More helpfully, experiences of one shopping centre probably won't have a great to do with experiences of the same developer in a different place. They'll be carefully tailored to local circumstances unless they're a bunch of rank amateurs. And if they're dropping mult-millions on a shopping centre that's unlikely.

The thing with centros miller is they are an offshore company... with literally hundreds of sub companies, so being off shore means they can dodge tax, having more layers than an onion means they can also dodge liability. They may not be rank amateurs but the term 'cowboy builders' does spring to mind.

 

[compo]

When we go to my daughter's in Sudbury we sometimes visit BSE and look into the complex. It's OK, but no different to many others up and down the country. I prefer BSE on market day, and even that has gone downhill over the past few years.

 

[MontyVeda]

Well I am just down the road and have been several times. Much prefer shopping in the old town of Bury rather than the identikit shopping centre.

Identikit sums it up really. The proposition they have up here 'we' fear will leach foot traffic from the 'old' town to the new town, and with businesses closing down left right and centre as it is, building 30plus new empty units which are too expensive for anything but a national chain to occupy will have a serious effect on the town centre we already have. How are businesses in the old town of Bury coping? Thriving, struggling, one closes every week or a new opens every week?

 

[4F]

Bury is coping rather well thankfully. The shopping centre has the usual suspects Debenhams, Waterstones, Costa Coffe etc etc. If you were to close your eyes spin round you could be in any town in the country.

The old town has still got a lot of traditional shops and given that the town is closer to the Abbey Gardens has really good footfall.

The Christmas market that they put on is excellent and I think they claim the 3rd biggest in the UK.

 

[MontyVeda]

Thanks for that 4F (and everybody else)... the problem with Lancaster's development as I see it is all the usual suspects, WH smith, M&S, BHS, Thorntons, Top Shop et al currently provide the foot traffic to our smaller local shops (which are very few and far between these days). Many of the chains will shut up and move over to the new bit, leaving the town we have with very little 'big name draw'. We have one proper butcher left, and one proper fishmonger. The last proper greengrocer sold up a few months back and our market hall is quite literally half empty, with more traders looking to get out of it than move in to it (that's a sorry tale in itself for what was once a good market town). I counted 44 empty shop units the other night and the idea of adding a further 30 or more in a part of town which isn't really connected to what we have isn't going to help matters, especially since shopping trends are moving away from the high street in favour of shopping online.

and what really pisses me off is... only one councillor has actually read the proposal in full and he's the only one who's against it... all the others haven't read it and they're keen to push it through because it's 'progress'. a decade ago Noel Edmunds had the local council in court after the f*cked up Blobbyworld theme park which was a bog standard kids playround. The councils defence was "we didn't really read the contract and just believed what Unique Productions told us" (unique being Noel's company)... that cost over a million for a big fat nothing.

We once had a nice victorian market hall which burnt down, The council sold off the land to a developer, rented it back on a 125 year lease which was so expensive, nobody can afford to run a market stall in our new market hall due to crippling rents the council has no option but to ask for. Still, there's only a hundred years left on the lease so the end is in sight.