Cornwall Monitoring Report St Ives Town Report

December 2017

St Ives Town Report 2017

1 St Ives Town Centre Survey 1.1 The annual survey of town centre uses was undertaken for St Ives in May 2017. A map and tables detailing the town centre uses along with the health check data by street are appended to this report.

Table 1 Town Centre Uses by Survey Year

Survey Year A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 B1a D1 D2 Vacant Othe

r Total % Vacancy

% Cornwall Vacant

2017 197 16 41 10 14 3 10 9 17 4 321 5.3 9.62016 197 17 40 10 14 3 10 10 17 4 322 5.3 9.42015 208 21 37 11 15 3 12 10 17 4 338 5.0 9.12014 200 23 38 11 14 2 12 10 21 3 334 6.3 8.62013 213 22 35 11 17 2 12 10 16 3 341 4.7 8.42012 155 19 34 8 11 0 9 4 11 4 255 4.3 8.7

1.2 321 units were counted within St Ives town centre this year, with one unit; Hobblers Restaurant, converting to residential. Since 2013 there has been a reduction of 20 units over the 4 year period due to a variety of reasons. A reduction of 10 units can be attributed to the Sloop Craft Market now being counted as 1 unit to simplify the survey, 5 units in total converted to residential use, a long term vacant unit was removed from the VOA and the remaining units most probably were lost through merging to create larger units. 1.3 There has been little change in the proportion of retail uses within the town centre with A1 uses comprising between 60-62% of the total units, well above the average of 50.5% compared to the rest of Cornwall. St Ives continues to enjoy an exceptionally low vacancy rate which has been over 4% below the Cornish average when including all town centre uses, for the third consecutive year.

1.4 Along with other town centres in Cornwall there has been very little change in the proportion of units within the Prime Shopping Area that are in A1 use. St Ives has maintained a high 63-65% proportion over the last five years, well above the Cornish average of 53.5%. It has the highest proportion of all the towns with Bude in second position, and Penzance and Saltash sharing third place.

1.5 New to St Ives this year, were a variety of independent retailers such as two vape shops, a pottery café, several retail art galleries and gift shops, a charity shop, Hager Vor, and the national chain; Jack Wills menswear shop. Losses include NHBC with Lloyds bank announcing its closure in June, both on High Street.

Convenience, Comparison and Service uses within the Town Centre

1.6 To measure the diversity of a town centre the A Class retail element is split into three main categories; convenience, comparison and service uses. The ‘health’ of town can be monitored by tracking the proportion of these sectors over time, and comparisons with other towns can be made. This method discounts non retail premises such as community and leisure facilities, clinics, surgeries and B1a offices.

1.7 The results from the surveys can be seen in Table 2. The total number of units has decreased since last year by a net reduction of 13 units, the majority being due to the grouping of the craft market into 1 unit as mentioned above. This has mainly impacted upon the comparison sector which despite a reduction of 16 units since last year remains well above average on just over 49%; nearly half of the town’s capacity share. Indeed, St Ives continues to have the highest comparison sector share of all the Cornish towns with its share being above the average by 10.4% this year, and 9.7% nationally. A high proportion (46%) of these shops are retail art galleries, jewellery, gifts and craft shops; the majority selling the work of local artists. 28% of the comparison sector consists of clothing shops with St Ives being attractive to high end national brands such as Superdry, Joules, Crew Clothing, Cath Kidson and Quba & Co.

Table 2 Retail composition of St Ives town centre 2012-17

Sector2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Cornwall

Average 2017

National

Average 2017

No % No % No % No % No % No %

Convenience 28 11.5 31 9.9 31 9.9 30 9.6 32 10.8 34 11.4 8.2 9.4

Comparison 120 49.4 166 52.9 158 50.7 16

2 52.1 146 49.2 147 49.3 39.4 39.0

Service 82 33.8 99 31.5 101 32.4 100 32.2 101 34 98 32.9 40.8 38.3

Vacant 11 4.5 16 5.1 20 6.4 17 5.5 17 5.7 17 5.7 10.7 12.1Miscellaneous 2 0.8 2 0.6 2 0.6 2 0.6 2 0.7 2 0.7 10.9 1.2

Total 243 100 314 100 312 100 31

1 100 298 100 298 100 100 100

Source: CC Surveys: 2012- 2017 Experian GOAD National Average 2017

1.8 St Ives’s convenience sector has consistently recorded between 30-32 units during the previous four year period maintaining a 9-10% of the centre share. However, this year, in response to the addition of 2 vape shops it has increased to 11.4% with a total of 34 units, scoring 3.2% above the average for Cornwall. It now has the highest convenience share after Hayle dropped from poll position it had held for the past five years. Nearly half of these units are ice cream and confectioners, reflecting its function as a seaside, holiday destination.

1.9 The comparison sector remains a healthy 10% above the average for Cornwall. Service uses remain consistently low falling below this year’s average by 7.9%. The town had been in bottom position when compared to the other Cornish towns, up until 2016. Since then, Penzance is recorded to have the lowest proportion of service uses.

1.10 For the first time St Ives has scored the lowest vacancy rate of all the towns this year despite no reduction from last year with 17 recorded vacant units. The vacancy rate is 5% lower than the Cornwall average and 6.4% below the national average. Using the vacancy scores in Table 2 the graph below illustrates the changes to the vacancy rate over the last 7 years in comparison to the Cornwall average. The graph shows how the % vacancy rate has remained well below the Cornish average for the whole time and despite a slight blip in 2014, has maintained a 4-5% margin. There are a few long term vacant units but half of the vacant units became vacant this year. Vacant floor space reflects small units ranging from 4.3 to 148sq m, with the exception of the Tate Gallery (2617sq m) which hadn’t re-opened at the time of the survey.

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 201702468

101214

Proportion of Vacant Units in St Ives Compared to the Cornish Average

St IvesCornwall Average

Survey Year

Vacant %

CC data 2011-17 (Health Check Data)

1.11 St Ives is one of the premier holiday destinations in Cornwall and is internationally renowned for its artistic community and has the added attraction of the Tate Gallery to prolong the tourist season. The type and quantity of shops give a good reflection of the role St Ives has with the tourism economy. Around half of the convenience sector is made up of fudge / sweet shops and ice cream parlours. Around 70% of comparison stores are art & craft galleries, gift shops and clothes shops. 66% of the service uses are restaurants, bars and hot food takeaways, (including numerous pasty shops). The health check demonstrates how well St Ives is performing and is ranked top in terms of its A1 retail sector, out of the 16 Cornish towns surveyed.

Retailer Representation

1.12 St Ives only has 1 multiple retailer as identified by Experian GOAD – Boots the Chemist. Ironically, it ranks in bottom position along with Wadebridge out of all the towns, in terms of the selected national retailers. Other multiples present include Mountain Warehouse, Fat Face, Super Dry, Joules, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, and Salt Rock to mention a few. There are two Co-ops and two small convenience stores within the town centre.

Out of Town Centre

1.13 On the approach into St Ives is a Tesco store, more accurately described as being in Carbis Bay. It provides 1,600sqm of retail floor space, shown in the map below. The map also shows the permitted housing sites allocated within the adopted St Ives Neighbourhood Plan.

2 Significant Decisions made in the last year

2.1 There were no significant decisions to impact St Ives this year; however the £23M Tate expansion development (approved in 2013) completed this autumn after two years in the construction phase. The gallery re-opened this October and now provides 600sqm of new gallery space enabling the capacity for three separate zones for exhibitions and displays, including a year round display of the St Ives Modernists. There are also better facilities for handling and lifting the artworks, new office and toilet facilities, and a renovated learning zone in the existing building. The gallery is said to attract more than 200,000 visitors to St Ives each year and contributes an estimated £12m a year to the local economy. Its expansion secures the long term success of the town from which it has benefited from since it first opened in 1993.

Aerial View of the Tate Gallery and extension

Appendix Use Class Data by Street

Street A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 B1a D1 D2 Vacant Other TotalFernlea Terrace 3 1 1 1 6Tregenna Hill 11 6 3 1 3 2 26Street An Pol 6 1 1 1 9St Andrews Street 5 1 3 1 1 11Westcott Quay 1 1 1 3The Warren 2 1 3Gabriel Street 6 2 1 1 10Royal Square 1 1Lower Stennack 1 1Chapel Street 5 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 16The Drill Hall Arcade 6 1 7Bedford Road 3 3Tregenna Place 14 1 1 2 18High Street 7 4 2 1 1 2 1 18Market Place 8 3 1 12Wills Lane 1 1Back Street 1 1Barnoon Hill 1 1Lifeboat Hill 2 2Fore Street 59 7 2 1 2 1 2 74Cyril Noall Square 2 1 2 5Wharf Road 15 5 2 3 1 1 27Back Lane 1 1Court Arcade 3 1  1 5Harbour Galleries 5 5Chy An Chy 4 4The Wharf 9 1 5 1 2 18Quay Street 1 1 2Wheal Dream 1 1Mount Zion 1 1Bethesda Hill 1 1Island Square 1 1 2Island Road 1 2 3Fish Street 3 1 4Sloop Craft Market 1 1Norway Square 2 2St Peters St 1 1The Digey 1 2 3Back Road West 4 4Back Road East 2 2Porthmeor Beach 1 1 2 4Beach Court 1 1Porthgwidden 1 1Total 197 16 41 10 14 3 10 9 17 4 321

Percentage 61.4 5.0 12.8 3.1 4.4 0.9 3.1 2.8 5.3 1.2 100

Health Check Data by Street

Street Convenience Comparison Service Vacant

Miscellaneous Total

Fernlea Terrace 1 3 1 5Tregenna Hill 1 5 14 2 1 23Street An Pol 6 1 1 8St Andrews Street 5 4 1 10Westcott Quay 1 1 2The Warren 2 1 3Gabriel Street 4 5 9Royal Square 1 1Chapel Street 2 2 9 1 14The Drill Hall Arcade 5 2 7Bedford Road 2 1 3Tregenna Place 8 6 2 2 18High Street 6 9 2 17Market Place 8 3 11Wills Lane 1 1Back Street 1 1Barnoon Hill 1 1Lifeboat Hill 2 2Fore Street 11 48 10 2 71Cyril Noall Square 2 1 2 5Wharf Road 6 9 11 26Back Lane 1 1Court Arcade 3 1  1 5Harbour Galleries 5 5Chy An Chy 3 1 4The Wharf 4 5 9 18Quay Street 1 1 2Mount Zion 1 1Island Square 1 1 2Island Road 1 1Fish Street 2 2 4Sloop Craft Market 1 1Norway Square 2 2The Digey 1 2 3Back Road West 1 3 4Back Road East 2 2Porthmeor Beach 1 2 3Beach Court 1 1Porthgwidden 1 1Total 34 147 98 17 2 298

Percentage 11.4 49.3 32.9 5.7 0.7 100