Leisure & Retail FAQ
Q: What leisure facilities will there be?
A: On the old livestock market site there will be a 6-8 screen multiplex cinema, with bars, restaurants, and cafés. Within the Urban Village there will be the canal with basin for water activities, open spaces, other community facilities and the historic core centred around the Coningsby Museum and Hospital. At Catherine Street, more cafés, bars and restaurants are planned. Overall, there will be a much more vibrant evening economy, helping to keep Hereford alive after business hours.
Q: Can Hereford sustain such a huge influx of new shops, and what effect will it have on the existing retail centre?
A: It's a fact that an extremely high % of non grocery household expenditure in the local area is spent in towns outside of the county. A lack of investment in Hereford's city centre for many decades is responsible for this. The modern shopper expects a much wider range and quality of shops, a blend of big name High Street retailers and niche independent shops, restaurants, bars and leisure facilities such as a multi-screen cinema. At present Hereford can’t offer this, and the available existing shops are too small and not easily extended or amalgamated. The new look Hereford will have all this, and more importantly, the new development will dove-tail neatly into the historic core of the city, thus bringing renewed prosperity to the city as a whole.
It's also a fact that Hereford needs to expand its retail offer. This is a firm commitment in the city's planning policies and if this expansion doesn't go right next to the existing core area, it will end up in retail expansion at out of town sites like Holmer Road which would do far more damage to the centre.To keep the city viable these new facilities need to be linked to the historic core, not out of town. Worse, retailers will choose to leave the city altogether.
The reason car dealers, shoe shops or banks all tend to cluster together is that they know that as a large group, even though they may compete, by being together, they will all have the chance to trade with a larger number of customers. It's no different on a city scale, so adding the major high street names for which people need to go to Worcester, Cheltenham and Cardiff will attract more shoppers for all the existing stores in the city.
Q: No one wants Hereford to lose its special/unique character. How will this be safeguarded?
A: From day one, ESG has been committed to designing a scheme which would be in harmony with the existing city centre, fusing the old and the modern into one new and vibrant city centre. Stanhope, the appointed retail developers, have stated: “The new development should retain the special character and charm of the city, be a natural extension of the town which maximises the opportunity for accessibility to the historic core. Hereford's unique identity is to be treasured and preserved at all costs”.
Q: Isn’t there enough space in Hereford's historic centre, for the new shops to be provided? The area behind the Green Dragon would easily provide enough large units to bring the much needed 'anchor' stores into our city centre.
A:All opportunities for new development and redevelopment within the existing city centre have been thoroughly assessed as part of the City’s forward planning. Hereford needs to expand and this is why the Council’s Unitary Development Plan extends the city centre boundary to the north, to include land needed for new developments. The area behind the Green Dragon has been available for many years with little interest in its development. This is because it suffers from serious constraints – such as the presence of listed buildings, archaeology and poor access. Some of the bigger stores already in town want to expand, but there is nowhere in town for them to do this.
Q: What will be the impact on existing shops and other businesses in High Town and the adjoining city streets?
A: The regeneration of the ESG area will bring more people into the city – to shop, work and play. With excellent links to the historic core from the ESG area, footfall will increase throughout the extended city centre, benefiting old and new shopping streets. Research carried out for the Local Development Framework confirms the capacity that exists for the retail expansion of Hereford. The new leisure facilities in the ESG area will boost Hereford’s evening economy, helping keep the city alive after traditional business hours.
Q: How will the City’s heritage be safeguarded?
A: The ESG project will do this by providing improved settings for historic features such as the Blackfriars Friary and the City Walls. Both of these are scheduled ancient monuments but are hemmed in by modern development and traffic. For Blackfriars, the Urban Village will provide the chance to open up the area and enable it to be part of the public realm. For the City Walls, the proposed improvements to the inner ring road will provide the opportunity to give elements of the wall breathing space.