A
national report revealed that Chesterfield is bucking
the north-south divide with low shop vacancy rates. The latest figures from the
Local Data Company (LDC) gives a detailed insight and analysis of 506 town
centres and Chesterfield is third best of the largest centres in the country
with just 8.7% of shops being empty, compared to the likes of Nottingham (30%),
Stockport (28.4%) and Sheffield (26.1%).
Figures from the LDC report show an
increase in shop vacancies across the East Midlands from 16.7% in 2011 to 17% in
2012. Chesterfield (8.7%) is the only town centre in
the region that is in the top ten featuring amongst a predominant list of
Southern based locations, including Central London, Cambridge and Kingston upon Thames.
The
good news doesn’t end there on the retail front. A new Debenhams store will be
opening shortly and there will be a further phase of development on the
Ravenside Retail Park after two additional units have been approved and are due
to be completed next summer.
Works are starting on the
refurbishment of the Market Hall and the proposed Northern Gateway Projects and
Walton Works are working their way through the planning
process.
At Destination
Chesterfield we want to continue to build on this success and will be once again
running a marketing campaign on the run up to Christmas to attract people to
shop and spend their leisure time in the town. Last year’s campaign was a great
success generating up to an estimated £500,000 into the local
economy.
Part of our inward
investment campaigns will target the retailers and leisure providers we would
like to see in the town, building on what is already here and we will also be
launching a number of the initiatives that were included in our Portas Pilot bid
thanks to the in-kind and financial support of the Chesterfield Champions.
These positive results
can only be achieved by working together and this success is down to the hard
work of the town centre businesses, agents, Chesterfield Borough Council and
everyone one who works, shops and lives in the town
centre.
