A councillor has addressed concerns over a shopping centre in Kidderminster, saying he “does not accept” its current state.
Councillor Dan Morehead met with Channel 5 star Rick Gannon following his visit to Kidderminster earlier this month, where he said he was “bowled over” by the number of empty shops.
In a video of the meeting posted by Rick Gannon, Councillor Morehead spoke to Rick about the current state of Rowland Hill Shopping Centre, which only has one open shop remaining.
Councillor Morehead said: “So the shopping centre is owned by the district council, but it is on a long, long lease to a private company. The private company has been operating it to a reasonable standard for a good number of years.
“Of course now we’ve seen a significant decline. Recently, it’s been accelerated by the amount of shops we’ve got open in here.”
In the video, Rick raised concerns about how new businesses were going to be attracted to the shopping centre.
He also questioned the marketing strategy with just pieces of paper stuck to the door saying the centre was “inviting businesses to set up stalls in our mall at affordable prices”.
The Rowland Hill Centre only has one shop open (Image: NQ)
Councillor Morehead confirmed that the council was currently working with the provider to look at ways they could get the centre back into use.
He said: “I can’t go into the details about what the conversations are that we are having with the provider. What I can confirm is that we do not accept the state of this shopping centre as it is at the moment.”
Rick said: “I’m thinking as a shop owner, how are you going to attract business into this arcade when everything else has closed down and there’s no one here?”
The future of the shopping centre was also discussed, including whether it should remain as retail units or “be something different”.
Councillor Morehead also said that to transform areas like the shopping centre, it would need “significant funding from central government”.
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The second half of the video spoke about the positive developments in the town centre, including Talbot Park and the potential of the Lion Fields development on the former Glades and Bromsgrove Street car park sites.
This includes plans for 150 new homes, which would bring more people into the town centre.
Councillor Morehead said: “So when we start looking at that all of a sudden, then if I was a business owner, why wouldn’t I want a shop here?”
Rick was impressed with the development plan for the new homes and called it a “game-changer”.
He said: “If you do get planning on there then all the shops along there [Worcester Street] will be snapped up straight away if anybody’s got any sense.”