Tunstall - Secured By Design!

Tunstall's new Retail Development Secured By Design!

12 February 2004

The first phase of the Tunstall East Regeneration scheme, delivering a new Matalan store, has been awarded Secured by Design Status by Staffordshire Police.

Developers Dransfield Properties Ltd have now completed the purchase of the Wedgwood staff car park in Tunstall as part of their plans to secure a second phase in the Tunstall East Regeneration Scheme.

The car park will continue to be available for Wedgwood employees free of charge until the end of this month thereafter it will be available as a town centre managed car park to encourage people to park and shop in the town over the busy Christmas period

Phase II will eventually bring forward a 3,500 sq ft retail unit and an additional 18,500 sq ft of space. The smaller unit, which will provide a seamless link to the High Street along Rathbone Street, has already been let to Shoefayre.

However uncertainty over the nearby H.R Johnson site on Brownhills road has prevented retailers committing to the larger space available

A public inquiry is due to start on November 11th  to consider the future of the H.R Johnson site. Dransfield Properties believes that as the development is out of the defined town centre area it will do nothing to support trade in Tunstall.

Mark Dransfield, Managing Director of Dransfield Properties Ltd, said: “We are concerned that having worked so hard to regenerate the town centre this work will be undone if this application is supported by the government inspector.

“New planning guidelines which are due out next month will make out of town shopping centres a thing of the past.

“We have had a great deal of support from the local ward members and traders for the plans we are trying to bring forward  for Tunstall town centre but many of the national retailers we are dealing with are awaiting the outcome of this important inquiry.”

Dransfield Properties has already committed to working with local stakeholders to enhance the town centre and plans are already in place to make the whole area a more attractive shopping location.

An application for Funding from the North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone is currently being considered for improvements to the link from Tower Sq to Rathbone St. Dransfield Properties are hopeful that this money can be secured before they commence on Phase II. 

The Matalan store, which is due to be completed by the end of January, has also been specifically designed to encourage linked shopping trips between ASDA and the town centre.

Phase two of the development, which includes a unit on Rathbone Street which also fronts the High Street, has been designed to link with the both the existing and newly developed shopping areas of Tunstall.

“In every aspect of design we have sought to improve the link with the existing ASDA store the new Matalan store and the High Street, we want to encourage shoppers to use the High Street shops and facilities and we believe that our development will do exactly that.

“We are hopeful that the phased Tunstall East Regeneration Scheme will underpin this whole shopping area and bring those shoppers back who at the moment are going to neighbouring centres.”
 
The new Matalan store will cover 45,000 sq ft and will bring around 120 new jobs to the area.

For further information about Dransfield Properties log on to the company’s website at www.dransfield.co.uk

 
For further information contact :-

Mark Dransfield
Managing Director, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel :  01226 360644

Nick Wright
Dalby Development
Tel : 01706 369480

Amanda Holmes
Public Relations, Dransfield Properties Ltd
 Tel : 01226 360644 or 07971 854733

EDITORS NOTES

1. Dransfield Properties Ltd is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and has been responsible for more retail developments than any other operation of its kind in the UK.

2. The first phase of the development will bring around 120 new jobs to the area. The second phase is for a further 19,270 sq ft of retail space and will bring around 70 new jobs.

3. In 2001 Dransfield Properties was awarded the BSCS award for working with the community. In November 2002 the company won the RICS Pro Yorkshire Award for Conservation/Regeneration. In October this year the company won the RICS Regeneration award for the second year running for a scheme on Holderness Road in Hull.

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk