Working Towards A Better Future For Caldicot
With recent speculation surrounding Caldicot town centre and its future, we thought it would be wise to issue a press release, to alleviate some concerns and correct some misconceptions.
As things currently stand all but one unit in the town centre is under offer by companies who are looking at opening up stores in Caldicot.
Whilst we are not at liberty to confirm or deny company names we can assure you that these are legitimate offers and some of the companies have already started work on the units.
With regards to the currently empty property, Caldicot Town Team are in talks with the landlord to discuss continuing our successful Caldicot In Pop! project, which we ran back in 2016. We are hoping that as last year, this will be on a rent-free tenancy.
With regards to the Landlords within the town, there are 3 main landlords, London & Cambridge who own Wesley Buildings (Waitrose and red bricked building) Jaymar Property Estates purchased from Store 21 to St David’s foundation units back in early 2016. We can confirm that the company is not going into liquidation, so will have no effect on the ownership of the property in Caldicot. Castle Mound Estates Ltd purchased the block of units which includes Bargain Booze – Clarkes butchers and the above offices back in 2016.
We feel that with the takeover of properties in the town centre by new landlords is a good sign, we have found we have been able to build up good rapport with landlords and they are keen to work with us to improve Caldicot. Our urban design project has been passed to new landlords who are keen to work with us.
The landlords do offer some discounts for rental of the units in the town centre, which relates to the length of tenancy signed by tenants, up to a regular monthly discount or even up to a year’s free rental.
With regards to business rates, we have worked with Monmouthshire County Council and have found that for the majority of the properties their rates have reduced, anywhere between £200 and £8,000 in discounts. We have spoken with local businesses and have pledged to support them and work on their behalf where we can.
We can also confirm that the recent charges for A Boards and outside seating has been scrapped by Monmouthshire County Council, businesses are free to continue advertising on A Boards and use outside seating as normal.
Moving forward…
Caldicot Town Team have put in place a schedule of specialised markets which take place monthly from March to December. During 2016 we attracted 74 new market traders to Caldicot, 11 of those have attended more than one market so far. Our first market starts this coming Saturday (March 4th) which is a Spring Market.
We are also currently starting Caldicot In Bloom, which is a new project looking at removing and replacing the brick planters within the town centre, as well as installing new planters on land around Caldicot, where local residents can take ownership and look after. We are looking for extra volunteers to help with this project, from looking at possible funding options to planting, watering and identifying sites around Caldicot.
We have started to write up a biography of all the independent businesses within the town centre, which will be published on our website as well as being shared on social media. This is intended to give every business an online presence, where visitors visiting our website can find out more information about businesses, and hopefully find businesses that perhaps they weren’t aware of. We are hoping that our website www.caldicottownteam.co.uk will hit 100,000 views by the end of march, which is a great milestone for us to reach.
We are working with landlords, council and other stakeholders on our Urban Design Project. This project is looking at redevelopment of the town centre, from repaving the town centre to realigning car parks and entrance signage for visitors. This is a long-term project, and will be working hard during 2017 to push this forward.
We have recently obtained quotations for repainting and revamping the street furniture within the town centre, this will include lampposts, bollards, seating and other street furniture. We are expecting this project to take place before the summer, to help improve the experience and ambiance of the town centre.
Work has now started on the linkage between Asda and the town centre. This is due to be completed by May, which will provide a safe, constant walkway between the two. The car park is being realigned to move the entrance and exit to one location, making the car park a one-way system.
Our next meeting takes place on Wednesday March 15th at 6:30pm in Caldicot Choir Hall, we welcome all members and non-members and invite anyone who is interested in the future of Caldicot to come along and attend, together, we can, make Caldicot a better place to work, live and play.
