Town centre manager plan for Padiham

2:11pm Sunday 8th April 2012 in Padiham

PROBLEMS caused by the opening of a new Tesco superstore to Padiham’s economy are to be offsetted by a new town centre manager.

Burnley Council’s Executive has agreed to an operational budget of £50,000, that will see a town centre manager put in post from May this year.

The post has been made available after Tesco appealed and overturned the council’s decision to reject their store proposals in March 2010.

As part of their planning agreement Tesco has had to provide £100,000 section 106 funding which will now be used to pay for the new manager.

The new manager will work 25 hours a week on a fixed term contract until March 31 2014.

Burnley Council Leader, Coun Charlie Briggs said: “This is brilliant news for Padiham quite frankly and something Burnley Council has been working towards for a long time.

“The full remit of the post has yet to be drawn up but I would say an essential part of the job will be to protect the high street, improve visitor numbers and increase occupancy rates.

“I hope whoever get this post gives it their everything and once again makes Padiham the thriving little town it once was.”

Padiham’s new £6million Tesco superstore is expected to open in October.

The demolition of the 24 buildings making way for the new store on land adjacent to Wyre Street, Lune Street, and Ribble Street has begun.

Eric Wright Construction is undertaking the work. expected to take 36 weeks.

Superstore bosses say the store will create 250 full and part-time jobs.

Burnley councillors rejected the proposals in March 2010 following protests from traders. Tesco appealed and won.

Comments(14)

mavrick says...
2:57pm Sun 8 Apr 12

Just what miracles do the council expect a towncentre manager to perform? The lack of decent paying work in the area is the main problem. I can't understand where all these shoppers/visitors are going to come from. I think all the councils in east lancs need a reality check.

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psch says...
3:10pm Sun 8 Apr 12

mavrick wrote:
Just what miracles do the council expect a towncentre manager to perform? The lack of decent paying work in the area is the main problem. I can't understand where all these shoppers/visitors are going to come from. I think all the councils in east lancs need a reality check.
Quite right, just another £50K wasted by the council on a non-job. This position is not going to change the economic fundamentals of retailing in the area. Better spending the money on challenging dominance of Tesco in the area with the OFT and forcing them to relinquish stores

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Petermariner says...
4:09pm Sun 8 Apr 12

£25,000 a year for 25 hours a week????.... Where's the application form????... or is it a "done-deal" already?

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eastlancslad says...
4:19pm Sun 8 Apr 12

'As part of their planning agreement Tesco has had to provide £100,000 section 106 funding which will now be used to pay for the new manager.'

All the councillors can see is £100,000. That's probably not bad, 'cos here in Gt Harwood all we got was a set of totally useless traffic lights at the end of Hyndburn Road. Some councillor or other said they will be needed due to the increase in the volume of traffic.
Utter rubbish. There was more traffic going to the household tip than there is going to Tesco.
I'll stick to Morrisons in Gt H, Tesco is far too expensive
PSCH, you are dead right with the 'non job' of Town Centre Manager. Does anyone know of a 'Town Centre Manager' of another town round here, and what's his job description?

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pdb951 says...
6:34pm Sun 8 Apr 12

Anyone been to look at Rochdale. See what the town centre manager post has done there!!!!

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Malthus says...
7:04pm Sun 8 Apr 12

Town Centre Manager. A sinecure that will involve various meetings, lunches and focus groups. This post will achieve nothing except the production of propaganda that states Padiham is on the up, when in fact the town centre will be broken beyond repair.

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Common_Sense1 says...
10:42pm Sun 8 Apr 12

So the full remit is yet to be drawn up. In other words, they don't really need the post and will have to make up a job description in order to fill their time. Some decent parking wouldn't go amiss if they want to reopen all those closed shops on the main street.

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Izanears says...
4:03pm Mon 9 Apr 12

Malthus wrote:
Town Centre Manager. A sinecure that will involve various meetings, lunches and focus groups. This post will achieve nothing except the production of propaganda that states Padiham is on the up, when in fact the town centre will be broken beyond repair.
If this guy or gal is as effective as Pendles than once again it will be a waste of money.
Totally agree with what Common-Sense says. It will be yet another example of finding work to fill the time allotted to it.
Workshops, bonding courses, meetings, photo opportunities, fancy leaflets,fact finding trips. Just watch, it will all happen

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pwitch says...
5:27pm Mon 9 Apr 12

Tesco should not have been allowed to build such a store even though the jobs are needed. and yes - we do probably need good car parks, but we do have enough for the current shops. What is going to happen to the Tesco express store when the big supserstore opens? After all the Co-op had to relinquish that building when they took over the other one. I wont be visiting Tesco on principle.

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jonsta says...
5:43pm Mon 9 Apr 12

why not rename padiham tesco town ? and ruin the characterof the town alltogetheri hope people will boycott the store and make it into a white elephant like the rest of the shops that will have to close because of tescosarriving in town

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everywhere is sh1t says...
7:55pm Mon 9 Apr 12

waste of public money lets face it what the hell is there to manage in padiham,as for shops closing because tesco's are building a new store if they where not so bloody expensive more people would use them

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lollyloo says...
9:43pm Mon 9 Apr 12

sorry to be in disagreement with some, but I find Tesco quite a bit cheaper for some things - it is FAR cheaper than Co-op and at the moment there is only co-op that is a "super market" in Padiham, I am very pleased we are getting another major supermarket as I regularly pop in to Tesco's in Burnley but its a farce having to go right the way across town through all the stupid traffic, this is great news as the padiham one will be within walking distance for me! Shame it wasn't a Morrissons being built but hey ho its the next best thing, I shop round for bargains - who does the best deal for what I want, I park up in town, go round sainsburys, Aldi, B&M, Asda and if Tesco have things I want well I go through padiham everyday to work so I pop into the little tesco express for anything else I need, I certainly wouldnt go in Co-Op they are miles dearer, I do like co-op, just not their prices!

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bankhall says...
12:28pm Tue 10 Apr 12

The new manager will work 25 hours a week ;guarantee a relative of a councillor will get this cushy number.

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Cpl Clot says...
11:38am Wed 25 Apr 12

At the moment I shop at either tesco or asda in Burnley. Due to laziness on my behalf I also get my fruit n veg & my meat at these stores rather than travel into Padiham town and use the local butchers & green grocers.
With the opening of this store, I will now use these 2 local shops, hopefully more people will do the same as most supermarket fruit n veg & prepacked meat is generally inferior.

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