Policy and practice regarding secondary shopping areas need to be radically rethought, urges a report launched today at the BCSC in Manchester.
CBRE’s report – The Role and Vitality of Secondary Shopping A New Direction –
highlights the vital contribution of secondary shopping areas to the nation’s urban fabric.
It warns that these areas have suffered as a result of national trends in retailing and are in need of new approaches to regeneration by planners, property owners and other decision makers.
The report also points out that secondary shopping areas are declining relative to prime retail districts and that they are often excluded from public space improvement programmes.
Secondary shopping areas are not dying out, concludes the report, but they must be managed more effectively if they are to realise their full potential.
Jonathan Baldock, project director and author of the report, said: “The report highlights a real gap in the current policy framework, something that the final version of PPS6 should address if secondary shopping areas are to recover from the adverse trends of the recent past”.
References: EGi News 02/11/04
