BARNSLEY Council has served notice on a major retailer in the town centre after plans to convert two units into one broke cover - and bosses hope the move will attract a ‘dominant high street shop’ into the town.
Health and beauty retailer Superdrug, based on Cheapside, were served the notice due to the council’s ambition to widen the pool of retailers they are able to target.
The building once served as a department store (BHS) and since their departure, it has been subdivided into smaller units and occupied by various retailers at the ground and first floor levels.
A snooker hall previously occupied the third floor, and the second floor has predominantly been used as ancillary storage and welfare for the retail units, a planning report states.
The council has labelled the three units unit A, Sports Direct, the New Look building is unit B and unit C is Superdrug.
Both Sports Direct and New Look have subsequently moved to the Glass Works, leaving Superdrug the only remaining tenant.
The report states: “The addition of the Glass Works has resulted in several national retailers relocating from other premises within the town centre to take advantage of new purpose-built units alongside similar sized retailers.
“Whilst some of the existing units, both on Cheapside and in the Alhambra Shopping Centre, have been taken over by new tenants, there are a few shop units that have remained vacant.
“The council’s estates team have been working with commercial agents to produce a strategy for attracting new retailers to the town to backfill the vacant units.
“The building on 24-32 Cheapside has been reviewed as part of this process and the key outcomes from the assessment of units B and C are as follows.
“The current ground floor configuration is no longer attractive to retailers, as evidenced by its long-term vacancy of two years and five months.
“Increasing the ground floor plate will vastly improve the marketability of the premises by providing a larger trading area and a dominant high street shop front presence which will compliment the Glass Works development.
“It will also widen the pool of retailers we are able to target to occupy the space.
“The above outcomes have led to the council’s decision to serve notice on Superdrug (unit C) and proceed with the combining of the units B and C to form a larger retail space.”
Council bosses are hoping the move will result in an increase in the number of jobs available for local residents, as well as a boost for footfall.
Coun Robin Franklin, cabinet spokesperson for regeneration and culture, told the Chronicle: “Our town centre has transformed over the past few years and continues to grow, with footfall increasing annually beyond the regional averages.
“Though the Glass Works drives this growth, we’re also working to improve our wider town centre.
“We’ve been looking at how we can attract new retailers to the town, and as part of this work have reviewed the units currently vacant at Cheapside.
“We’ve submitted a planning application to combine two existing retail units at Cheapside to develop a larger unit which will be more attractive to retailers and compliment the Glass Works development.
“While one of these units is currently vacant, the other is occupied by Superdrug.
“Ongoing conversations are taking place with Superdrug around potential relocation options within the town centre.
“As with any retailer, we’re keen that Superdrug maintain their presence within our town centre and we’ll continue to work with them throughout this process.”
