What can we do to save the Central Business Districts of Wales?

Without a doubt the C.B.D. of Cardiff is a major success story. It has managed to avoid the decline of other town and city centres and is actually growing. However this is not true of most of our town and city centres. What should planners do in the future? Let us look at attempts, successes and failures from across Wales in a bid to see what can be done in the future.

Decision time - Leisure

Integration of retailing with leisure has been a major success in Cardiff. Shoppers enjoy a meal or a drink during the day and this in turn creates another income stream for businesses which can grow. At night this provides a wide range of recreational facilities which attracts visitors.

During the day these visitors are customers for the shops. Cardiff is now a UK top 10 retail destination meaning people actually come and stay in hotels to go shopping; they then boost the local night time economy.

City centre hotels are very busy and are even expanding. Compare this with Cardiff’s near neighbour city Newport in which the last city centre hotel closed down last year. 

Decision time - Pedestrianisation and beautification

Beautification of town centres goes beyond pedestrianisation but this is a key part of many C.B.D. redevelopments. This picture shows a busy pedestrianised section of Wrexham in North Wales. The shopping experience is far better without the danger of traffic or being crowded on narrow pavements.

Closing roads and filling centres with decorative paving as well as improving street furniture, art and attractive floral displays have all been important in revitalising the shopping experience in our biggest town in north Wales. 

Decision time - Indoor shopping

The shopping mall is a retailing development that has become very popular in Wales. This is the Quadrant Centre in Swansea which it is easy to see addresses many of the problems of the shopping experience. The indoor mall is combined with parking either as a linked block, or either above or below the mall. St David’s 2 in Cardiff has provided over 2,000 parking spaces above the shops. 

Decision time - Students instead of businesses

As some C.B.D.s have lost businesses to out of town business parks they have lost the footfall needed for retailers and leisure facilities. Some have looked to replace these by bringing in populations not normally associated with the C.B.D. Newport has moved a large part of its university campus into a riverfront location adjacent to the C.B.D.

This is an attempt to improve the student experience but also to help to regenerate the city centre as it has already tried all of the other strategies and still the city centre is declining. This photograph was taken from the roof of the parking block of the newly refurbished indoor shopping mall of the construction of the Newport University's City Centre Campus. 

Assessment for Learning: Quiz

Before attempting this quiz, make sure that you have read all the articles in this issue:

Issues in the C.B.D.

• Changes in retailing

• C.B.D. - Decision time