A shopping area has gone "back to the drawing board" as a council leader called for clarification on its renovation. There had been plans to revamp Carlton Square using the Government's Levelling Up fund, but Gedling Borough Council was denied access to the £1.7 billion pot on October 27.
After this, £350,000 of funding from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was used to redevelop Carlton Square's car park, adding a new pedestrian route to the shopping centre from Burton Road and vehicle charging points. CCTV equipment was also put up to increase the safety of the car park.
But the Carlton Square shopping precinct is privately owned, and after the failed Levelling Up bid, the borough's council leader has shared his thoughts that not enough progress has been made, despite the previous plans between the council and square managers, Waypoint. Gedling Borough Council leader John Clarke MBE called for the owners and managers of the site to invest in the shopping area as soon as possible, citing the centre's poor appearance and safety concerns.
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"We don't own the precinct and that's our frustration. I understand there are meetings being set up to urge them to join us, because we have put a significant amount of money into the car park.
"The likes of Wilkinson's and Farm foods we want them to stay there, they are a great service to the community as are the smaller shops. You've got the cafes, the fresh food, and even the little pub at the end.
"But it needs brightening up, it looks scruffy and it wants doing. It's not ours and people think it is council owned, I can assure people if we owned it, it would be done by now.
"For us it's about trying to get them to put some money in. It's a private business but we don't want it in the state it is in. We want it in a first-class condition so people can go to the shop with it safe and better lit, and safer underfoot."
It had previously been thought Carlton Square's retail area was owned by French bank BNP Paribas, but a spokesperson for BNP Paribas said it did not own the site. A spokesperson for Waypoint Asset Management declined to comment on who owned the Carlton Square shopping precinct.
A spokesperson for Waypoint Asset Management said plans had gone "back to the drawing board" after the Levelling Up bid was unsuccessful, resulting in a delay to works. "We were working with the council and have had to go back to the drawing board but we will be doing work in the future."
After Waypoint Asset Management confirmed they were still planning work at the site, Mr Clarke added: "We will be applying the pressure to get them to meet the quality of what we have done to the car park. We'd really encourage the owners to take part, I just hope that things are done quickly because it is deteriorating fast."
