Presented after ST AUSTELL BAY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE held on TUESDAY 24th JUNE 2014 in At St Austell Print Conference Centre
Chairman, David Halton explained why the Chamber had chosen to accommodate an open meeting with the Coyte Farm developers, inviting all local businesses to attend, saying that ‘everyone knows it is a hot topic for St Austell over which opinion has been divided. The management team and the chamber felt it is important that we all have a good an accurate understanding of what is being proposed prior to any vote that might take place. There will be no vote at this meeting as it is just an opportunity to hear an update from the developer of the proposed scheme.’
Presentation by Simon Hoare
Simon introduced himself and Chris Towers from Mercian Developments saying they had been working alongside on this Coyte Farm proposal for about 4 years through its different stages, and thanked the room for him being allowed address them.
He expressed a hope that they would be able to start a relationship afresh with the Chamber and work closely in debate and ongoing discussion with the Chamber and trying to take on board points of view and concerns. ‘It was a relationship that we wanted to have with the first proposal’, he said, ‘We thought it was absolutely vital that a development proposal coming in should form a positive and professional relationship with the Chamber.’
[For the following reasons.]
‘After refusal of first application on a casting vote by we have reflected on the reasons for refusal and are aiming to submit in September or October with a revised plan. We aimed for June/July but have been delayed by Sainsbury rethinking their strategy.
‘Refusal had been made due to the development on the north of the A390 on the highest grade of agricultural land, and the impact on St. Mewan Church as raised by English Heritage. On that side we had been proposing to put a care home, a pub/restaurant/hotel. Plus a new link road, improvements to the Church and School, the school to have a new playing field on the school side of the road and extended parking. New development means there will be no development on this side of the A390. No phase II and further development of the site for housing; no link road; no hotel/pub/restaurant; no care home or improvements to the church but still going to give the improvements to the school.
‘No link road has a change in highways impact where there had been some concern about the scale of the new roundabout required. Will now require a signalised junction instead.
‘The Cornwall Care Home will now come to the south side of the A390. This will be the largest single investment in elderly social care at anytime in Cornwall with 60 beds and assisted living. Cornwall Care is currently operating 2 aging care facilities in the town that are now considered inadequate in basic standards. This will sit alongside the Golf Academy typing in with Cornwall Council’s vision seeing investment in sport and youth sport facility.
‘Big supermarkets are changing the way they develop in recent months and the race for space is slowing down. The non-food element is scaling back and they are concentrating evermore on core business as grocery stores. The effect of having lost the planning argument in January, the market has been moving and since then it has moved still further. Sainsbury remains under contract to Mercian and Metric but they are reviewing their developments across the whole county. The reason for the delay in submitting our proposals is to give time to work up two proposals: one with a Sainsbury’s supermarket, and one with no food element at all which would deliver a development very similar to Hayle, to take to further retailers to consider.
‘M&S are now in the detailed phase of working out their fit out of their stores and remain committed to the proposal, but if the supermarket is dropped they will have to rerun the numbers about footfall and turnover that is the addition that every supermarket brings.’
Primark, River Island and other leading fashion retailers are the sorts of occupiers that will be coming in and for whom no sequentially preferable sites have been identified as suitable for their needs. Simon Hoare made the comment that in his personal view he saw Old Vicarage Place as complimentary to Coyte Farm but thought it would struggle to find the secondary retailers to come forward for it without Coyte Farm in place first as it is not of a scale to become a strong enough retail magnet to draw people back from breaking their current shopping patterns to Truro or elsewhere.
Unfortunately, if the food store is dropped the footfall numbers will drop and the job numbers will drop as well, as does the scale of the investment. However, without the supermarket it decreases the visual impact on the brow of the hill.
Section 106
‘A new retail will be required as the amount of 106 money is determined on the level of impact that is shown to have on the existing town centre. The number or reports last time with varying impact figures caused confusion and indecision.
‘Reason why we were keen to have this debate, because it is much worse when a developer comes in and decides how they will spend the pot of cash they have in the way they decide without consulting the local knowledge.
‘We are seeking ideas from the Chamber, SABEF, and the board of BID. Previously we were proposing to subsidise town parking. But have the question whether it is better to roll that sum into the broader 106 pot of monies. Interested to know if it is sensible to maintain the subsidy for town centre parking charges.
‘It is not known how much the 106 money will be, as it will be determined by the new impact figures.
‘Non poaching clauses, 106 monies, free park and ride are all specifically designed to negate the damage and risk to small to medium enterprises and independent retailers in the town.
‘The aim is to maximise the benefits to St. Austell whilst minimising the negative impacts. This is not bringing out of town retail to St Austell for the first time, as it already exists in terms of how far people now go to shop. The aim is to bring much of that ‘lost’ shopping back into the area as close as possible. Truro is very strong and will easily survive Coyte Farm. Unless St. Austell addresses it retail deficiency and starts to challenge for position against other towns, will anybody in 5, 10, 15 years be talking about the future economic life of St Austell?
‘All large-scale applications have risks, which are why the reports need to be robust and the review and interrogation of assessments have to be thorough, and “you need to make sure, as a Chamber that you hold our toes to the fire to get the maximum benefit from this proposal for your town. We want work alongside you, we want to make sure St Austell gets its place in the table in the retail hierarchy that it deserves”.’
Opportunity to ask questions
Chamber Members’ questions
Rainer Newton (Rainer’s Retros)
Will Primark be interested in Coyte Farm as well as Truro?
Answer: Coyte would be the opportunity to provide their largest store in the South West. They are talking with Truro but have not signed. As with M&S, Primark may choose to have both.
Sainsbury’s seem to be pulling out and there is a rumour that M&S may be in trouble, what happens if they pull out?
Answer: They are very careful at doing their calculations to make sure they could trade with a food store and without. You don’t get as far as talking about the width of the internal columns of the store without being very committed.
Julian Hocking (Nationwide Print)
Will you be substantially increasing the amount of 106 money offered? If that figure rose to 4 or 5 million it would help in getting more people on side.
Answer: Rules set down by government are clear, what is the impact of the development on an existing town centre = x% to attenuate that the 106 should be in the region of between x and y. Giving a higher amount, i.e. a percentage of the profit would fall foul of the rules and would go to judicial review and the consent would be lost.
The amount of 106 money proposed would not be anywhere enough to restore the Market House, for example.
Answer: The National Lottery won’t give out any money without feasibility reports. So some of the 106 money could be used to pay for the surveyors report. Or could used to help draw down European Money in match funding. It can help to draw down money from other investment companies who just need to know that the seed is there. 106 had been used as a way to unlock other funds that would have hitherto have been locked away.
Peter Crawford (Wain Homes)
Compared to the 106 monies that housing developers have to pay, £500,000 that was quoted as the 106 contributions doesn’t sound like a lot. Does that figure include the contribution to highways?
Answer: It was 5.5 million 106 to highways and 1/2 million to the town centre. It is absolutely pivotal that the money is ring fenced for St. Austell town centre rather than going to county. Housing schemes have to make a core contribution the health, schools and so on.
[Simon’s comment to note: If the scheme 2 is passed, the highways contribution drops considerably without the link road to St Mewan and the roundabout. What the town centre focused 106 is will depend upon what the ‘it’ is which is applied for. What its impact is assessed to be and agreed upon, what Cornwall Council officers including their legal team believe will be sensible and commensurate to attenuate against the impact without triggering the opportunity for a judicial review.]
How many spaces will there be as there will be a free park and ride for 5 hrs?
Answer: In the region of 750-850 spaces. All will be available for free park and ride, but it will not be a commuter’s park and ride, as the time will be enforced. If there is some spare land, we will look to see some additional spaces for parking.
Margaret Buttfield (Cornwall College)
Made a suggestion for putting the 106 money towards professional support services for all the businesses, church and charities.
Answer: Good idea and one that the BID could play a part in.
Andy Ward (TIC)
My understanding of Hayle is that the retail park is far smaller than the proposed retail area proposed for Coyte Farm; therefore it doesn’t seem to be a valid comparison.
Answer: Add the first phase with phase 2, which is currently in the planning process, it is roughly the same square footage and Hayle has welcomed that. Footfall has gone up, the Chamber is working closely with the developers and others. Difficult to make direct comparisons as every town is different. St. Austell’s shoppers are currently being pulled in a number of directions for their retail needs. For example, Old Vicarage Place as a stand-alone will do something but it does not create that strong enough retail magnet to warrant people changing their shopping habits. The drift has become too strong and it needs a very strong magnetic pull to start to bring people back. Piecemeal development won’t achieve it. St. Austell as the largest town by population has a sub-regional hole to fill. For every citizen that lives in Truro there is 36 sq ft of retail floor space, in St. Austell, 6 sq ft per capita and with Coyte Farm that rises to 18 sq ft of retail floor space per person.
Will there be anything in the way of cycling provision if the scheme goes ahead?
Answer: Cornwall Council in highways should be making provision for cyclists. The scheme will have bike racks and hopefully changing facilities for cyclists who commute to work at Coyte Farm.
Jacky Swain (CEG)
You referred to a memorandum with Cornwall College, can you expand on that?
Answer: How best can the people going through the college could maximise the employment opportunities at Coyte Farm in terms of its construction, operation and maintenance. We gave the college a crib sheet of the skills required from day one that this development would need and the college cross-referenced their syllabus. People going through Cornwall College will be guaranteed and interview and have opportunity to look at apprenticeships in order to give preferential treatment to St. Austell’s young people to address the lack of all year round employment and shortage of jobs.
Gerald Banks (Access Training)
There is a plethora of private training companies and national organisations that run apprenticeship schemes, if you only deal with Cornwall College you will exclude those people who live in the town as well. Especially as bus loads of St. Austell residents also go to Truro College.
Answer: No other organisation came forward to us before. However, this is what having conversations with the Chamber are all about, to find other opportunities and ways of doing things. The committee of the previous chamber denied this opportunity before to get involved with that debate.
Jessica Milln (FishWifey)
St Austell feels vulnerable and therefore sees Coyte Farm as a threat to the town’s ability to draw customers. I would like to see 106 monies on the Market House to create a ‘special unique’ reason to visit the Town Centre.
Answer: St. Austell is vulnerable to Truro, Plymouth, Exeter, and enlarged Hayle and to Newquay and every retailer is vulnerable to the Internet, and is therefore more at risk without Coyte Farm than with it and should be seen as a protective shield rather than increase in vulnerability.
The Market House, in SH’s opinion is the jewel in St. Austell’s crown. John Kneller is making inroads into Heritage Lottery applications and we have offered help with 106 monies. The Market House cries out to be a centre of excellence for ‘made and produced in Cornwall food, products, arts and crafts to help enhance St. Austell’s historic and cultural quarter. James Staughton, with Eden Project, has an idea for a St. Austell in bloom on a grand scale to tie in with the Eden Project and to interest visitors who are interested in plants and gardens. 106 can actively contribute towards these types of schemes.
Sara Gibson (Seven Stars Inn)
Will Coyte to anything to promote the nightlife in St. Austell?
Answer: No, because with the cinema, and as Ellandi has planned for increasing the dwell time with restaurants, wine bars, tapas bars with the cinema to help change the reputation of St. Austell as a ‘drinking and shouting’ town at night. Coyte specifically will not have evening entertainment; there was a pub on the first application that won’t be on the second.
Guests’ questions
Why has it been shown that some retail units shown on Metric website for Coyte Farm were in fact smaller than some of the retail units in St. Austell?
Answer: the website showing the retail units pre-dates the application. The final application had restrictions imposed that gave a much larger minimum size of the units. Minimum size will be 5,000sq ft and limited to 3 units, the others will scale up.
Has Coyte Farm got retail interest signed up apart form M&S, as Sainsbury’s have just pulled out of their build in Wadebridge?
Answer: at the moment we have a list of companies that through their agents have come down and seen the site and have liked it, who have been to see Trewhiddle and didn’t, and have seen WRP but couldn’t make it work for their requirements. The question that all retail agents want to know is ‘when can you deliver it?’ They have developers and agents daily knocking on their door to look at different towns and asking them to sign up. The soon as a retailer signs up it is a commitment of capital expenditure which come out of a development fund for a scheme that may not come out of the ground for 2 or 3 years. It is expected that when the second submission for planning permission is submitted in the autumn ‘we expect letters of interest from a whole raft of retailers who hitherto have not been able to find a site capable of accommodating their needs’. It is time in a sense of ‘fair play’ that St. Austell got its slice of the cake instead of it always going to Truro. As soon as plans are submitted, and there is something concrete on the table, retailers will sign up which we will be able to show in the public domain. It will be deliverable. Sainsbury’s are also still under contract and are under obligation to continue. It will be by mutual agreement if we progress to a second proposal that does not have a supermarket. Hayle is an example that works of a retail park that exists without a supermarket, and the business community there has all supported Cranford Phase 2 as they all saw the indicative benefits to Hayle that came with the first phase.
How do you know you won’t end up having empty retail units?
Answer: London Metric (a listed company) and Mercian does its homework and doesn’t do speculative development. At a conservative estimate £1.5 million pounds spent so far just on planning which will rise by another £600-700 just to get a second planning application in. Therefore we have to know that this can work and that the retailers will come in and they won’t be left empty. Would expect within 6-7 months from consent, and before the development starts, the whole site will be filled.
How do you ensure that the retailers stay for longer terms? In the town the shops change very quickly.
Answer: M&S is committed to a 25yr lease, generally it is 15yr leases as the fit out costs for each unit are considerable.
