Part of Linthorpe Road ‘95% empty of shops’ after Next closure

The critique came at the full meeting of the council on Wednesday, July 9, ahead of the the closure of Next, which shut its doors for the final time on Saturday, July 12.

Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA) group leader Councillor Mick Saunders highlighted the wider decline of the section of Linthorpe Road near the railway station.

In response, executive member for development, Labour Councillor Theo Furness, said that the trend away from high street shopping is “sad” and that Middlesbrough wasn’t alone. He also laid out what the council is doing to attract people to the town centre, providing different experiences that did not previously exist.

Cllr Saunders is not the first politician in the region to react to the closure of Next and the wider state of Linthorpe Road, with Middlesbrough Labour Mayor Chris Cooke describing the closure of the clothing and homeware store as “regrettable”, while Tees Valley Conservative Mayor said the town centre is in a “dire state”.

At the full council meeting, Cllr Saunders said: “You cannot ignore the continuing decline of the retail business in the town. Yet another major store, Next, is closing next week. That will make the part of Linthorpe Road, or Linthorpe Boulevard, approximately 95% empty of shops and former building societies. What are you and the director of development doing to stop this decline?”

Responding, Cllr Furness said: “I agree it’s a sad affair really. Towns, not just us, across the country, are losing major brands such as Next, Marks and Spencer. We struggle to attract those kind of shops because of the way people shop now, people shop online, people want to go to the retail shops that are outside of town, or they go to major cities like Leeds and Newcastle locally.”

As for “strategic plans”, Cllr Furness highlighted that the council has taken ownership of Captain Cook Square, as well as the Cleveland Centre, and are looking at “rejigging” the types of shops and offers the town has, highlighting the leisure approach in Captain Cook. He asserted that such an approach caters to different audiences, which the town didn’t historically have on offer.

He continued to list other things happening in the town centre, such as STACK, while the Live Well Centre features within the Cleveland Centre, adding: “When I shop, unfortunately, I shop online, because I work, I have my kids, do a lot of council stuff, I don’t have the time to come to the town centre and shop and that’s just the way of the world now and it’s really sad.”

Cllr Furness said he had been told a statistic that while retail had halved, “our office space – the occupancy, that has doubled”, so while there is a decline in one area, there is growth in another.

As a supplementary, Cllr Saunders said he accepted the progress being made on Captain Cook and the Cleveland Centre, but added: “You never answered my question. That part of Linthorpe Road is so unattractive, when people are coming from the train station as they’re coming up to the town, it’s a disgrace.”

He also circled back on Cllr Furness’ comments on office space, saying: “In this town, we have about five empty blocks of possible office space.” He highlighted Gurney House, Vancouver House, Centre North East (CNE), Dundas House, and Church House. “You mention office space, if it’s such a success, why are all those office blocks empty?”

Councillor Furness responded, saying: “Towards the end, towards the train station, obviously there are a few businesses that are vacant. We are looking at safe routes from destination areas through the town, Linthorpe being one, Albert Road being the other. Obviously, the public realm, it could be better, I guess we could work with the area care team in improving that.”

As for the buildings that Cllr Saunders had listed, the executive member outlined that Church House is being renovated, and it’s going to be apartment blocks. As for the other four, Cllr Furness said that they are all owned by private developers. He added: “The reason why they are empty is because modern offices, their needs are totally different from what those buildings can provide.

“Obviously the new office space that we have around here are modern, they have all the mod-cons that modern companies want and need. And unfortunately, when buildings were built back in the 60s/70s/80s, they didn’t think about the internet connections and things like that.”

He hoped that Church House would prove to be a “good example of a public and private partnership of getting that up and running and if that does work, then maybe we could work with – obviously Middlesbrough Development Corporation (MDC) have control of the town centre – we could work with them to redevelop these buildings, and bring them back into use.”

Independent Councillor Joan McTigue interjected about the empty buildings, saying: “Does that mean [Cllr Furness] is saying the council has no control over premises that are privately owned?”

Cllr Furness said: “When it comes to development, no,” adding: “we can work with those private owners, but we have no control, or we can secure them, obviously Vancouver being a good example where they haven’t secured and we have put something in place to secure it. CNE building being another one, Church House, that’s an example of us working with a private developer to get that up and running.”