It saddens me that, to score cheap political points, some opponents have taken to are spreading false or misleading ‘news’ about my work on the Town Centre.
We need people, across the political divide, to pull together to bring about a Town Centre that a place like Nuneaton deserves.
That said, in the face of misleading statements and the absence of Labour being willing to offer anything positive and deliver for the people, I think it's important that I set out what I have done over the years and why I believe only a change of political administration at the Town Hall will deliver improvements.
My affiliation with the Town Centre goes back to the mid 1970's when I grew up in a pram in the back of my mum’s record shop (‘Chapter Two’) in Heron Way, now Abbeygate.
As Leader of the Council in 2008/09 I drove forward improvements for the Town Centre including significant amounts of entertainment. We got the excellent Mayor, Gerald Smith, to walk the market every Saturday to meet and greet shoppers. I refused to put up car parking charges despite advice to the contrary from Council officers. I also met with market traders and shop owners - something that our Council leaders didn't do previously and, to my knowledge, haven't done since. I also set the Town Centre Manager free to innovate and not to be micro-managed as previously happened under Labour councillors.
When I became Nuneaton’s Member of Parliament in 2010 I continued to support the Town Centre. I had a very good relationship with Alan Ottey, our excellent Town Centre Manager. In my view the Labour Party made him redundant for political reasons. An MP, unlike a local Council, does not control any local budget nor have any decision making powers over a Council’s local responsibilities.
In 2011 the Government announced the Mary Portas review and set up a fund for a number of towns to become members of a pilot scheme. By this time M&S had closed their Nuneaton store after the Council leadership had failed to do what was needed to keep them here. Despite that, I wrote to the Council Leader offering to work with my political opponents to put in a bid for funding. My letter went unanswered. At the very last minute the Council put forward a half-hearted bid without, quite disgracefully, any knowledge on my part so I wasn’t able to support it.
During this time the Council leadership, oblivious to the challenges facing all town centres, decided to increase car parking charges. I attended a meeting of the Council’s Cabinet and opposed such a misconceived idea. I was scoffed at. Subsequently, the Council has lost £500,000 in revenue and, just as importantly, witnessed reduced numbers of people visiting the Town.
The winners have been Hinckley which, under a Conservative Council, has improved their town so significantly that Nuneaton people choose to visit Hinckley rather than Nuneaton.
Over the past few years I have been meeting and working with local businesses to assist them to create a Business Improvement District (BID) in Nuneaton. This would really help to improve things. Both the County Council and Borough Councils have supported this. However, I am not convinced that the Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council (NBBC) leadership will give its full support as it takes power from the Council and passes it over to businesses. It’s quite indicative that I have never seen a Councillor from the Borough Council attend one of these BID meetings.
In 2015 I was appointed as a Government Minister and part of my responsibility was for town centres. This ministerial post does not come with any source of funding for local areas. During that time I worked on changing government policy in various areas, including Business Rates, to support our town centres. I undertook the 2017 Rates revaluation programme which saw Business Rates reduce on average by 11% in Nuneaton. The changes also meant that some small businesses in areas like Coventry Street became exempt from paying rates at all.
During this period I made some very helpful contacts. As a result I was able to arrange at an international property conference for a Nuneaton showcase to promote investment opportunities in our Town Centre. The Council did not know of my involvement, but a contact, at my request, managed to persuade the County Council, the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP and NBBC to take part in this event. I never made this public because I wanted NBBC to take part and knew they wouldn't if they knew I was behind it. Subsequently, there has been a lot of interest from people who want to invest in Nuneaton.
Work that I did persuading Ministers also led to the Government allocating £7.5 million towards improving the Town Centre. The County Council is currently working on a scheme to use this money to improve our Town.
I have even shown investors around the Town Centre. One potential investor wanted to turn the Ritz into a cinema and entertainment venue; another wanted to redevelop the Co-op. Regrettably, these people were spooked off by the activity of a property agent who, we have now discovered, is being paid a £6,000 a month retainer by the Council. This agent, who NBBC have been working with since 2012, has been travelling the country trying to sell unrealistic developments to investors inadvertently preventing other opportunities which were far more deliverable.
We are where we are. We are still no further forward. Immediate action is needed. We need a local Council which is going to work properly with the County Council and the local Member of Parliament. Investors want to see people working together.
Only a vote for the Conservatives at the local elections next Thursday (May 3rd) will deliver this. The Conservatives are also committed to reducing the car parking charges to a far more realistic £1 for 3 hours during the week, a policy which is fully costed. They are also willing to invest some serious money into encouraging private investment by looking to put public money into a sensible project to regenerate the Abbey Street area.
Please do think about your vote. Our Town Centre can't afford another two years of Labour.