Partnership Working is Key to the Success of Our City Centre

Unquestionably, Newport city centre is a hot topic with residents and businesses when I speak to them on the doorstep, in the street, in the city centre, and in my email inbox.

Whether it’s residents telling me about an event they’ve enjoyed, or sharing concerns around safety and all that falls in between – both good and bad – it’s fair to say that nobody is afraid to express their views on what’s happening on High Street, Commercial Street, around the bus station, Friars Walk, and everywhere else in the centre of Newport.

Of course, I welcome these conversations and take concerns – and praise – back to Newport City Council’s Leader, Cabinet members, Gwent Police, our city’s Senedd Members, and anyone else who needs to know.

What does strike me, however, is that often when people share concerns about the city centre, it may be they haven’t been into Newport for a while. In some cases, the concerns they raise may be second-hand from social media.

I often make the point to people that it feels like we have weekly debates in the House of Commons on city centres across the UK. Online shopping and out-of-town retail parks have changed the face of how we shop all across the country, but Newport is bucking the trend. Footfall figures are growing month on month and are at pre-Covid levels, bucking UK and Wales trends.

And, as has recently been released, shop occupancy in Newport is now at almost 85%.

I always encourage residents to pop into the city centre, to give it a whirl again, to enjoy the hundreds of independent businesses, the redeveloped market, the cultural scene, and the events programme. I hope they’ll see what so many of us see, and I reassure them with my own experiences of the city centre.

That said, of course, I’m not blind to the fact that the city centre isn’t perfect – there’s work to be done on a number of fronts. But I’m glad to see so much partnership work happening to tackle issues like anti-social behaviour and safety.

In the last few weeks, I’ve caught up with the Police and Crime Commissioner, Jane Mudd, and council officers, along with Cabinet Member Jason Hughes, to hear about some of the work carried out in the city centre as part of the Home Office’s Summer Crime Crackdown campaign. Identifying issues with young people in the city centre during the holidays, the council and the PCC worked together to provide 600 young people with diversionary activities.

Off the back of a recent announcement of a £300,000 investment in improving CCTV in the city centre, to kick off October I also met Chief Superintendent Jason White, alongside council leader Dimitri Batrouni, to share concerns raised with me by retail businesses and those working in the nighttime economy. They told me about some partnership working that’s happening and plans to deepen that work to tackle ongoing issues around anti-social behaviour in the city centre. There is some really good partnership work underway there.

The UK Government is also placing a particular focus on city centres like ours. It is working to strengthen legislation around the use of e-bikes and e-scooters which I know shoppers and businesses are often irritated by, tackling the sale of illegal tobacco and vapes, and exploring ways to address shop closures more effectively to support Trading Standards officers – something I raised in the House of Commons at the start of this Parliamentary term.

Speaking of the UK Government, I was incredibly pleased to receive the news that Newport is in line for two additional pots of funding, which will undoubtedly make a huge difference to the city.

The largest of these is a £20 million fund, to be delivered at £2 million per year over the next decade. This funding from the UK Government comes as part of the Pride in Place programme.

What makes this funding unique is that residents, via a Neighbourhood Board, will decide how the money is spent. This will ensure that the priorities of people and businesses in Newport are right at the heart of the city’s future. If residents want it, there’s a real opportunity to invest more in the city centre – tackling littering and anti-social behaviour, improving safety, creating more activities for young people, families and older people, or anything else residents consider a priority.

Alongside this, there are already many groups working hard to support the city centre day in, day out – the BID with their brilliant Ambassadors, Pubwatch, the Retailers Against Crime Group, the new City Centre Roundtable, which was recently started up by Newport City Council Cabinet Members… amongst others.

Partnership working is key to the success of our city centre. I’ll continue to listen to residents and businesses, while working the council, Gwent Police, Senedd Members and the UK Government, and all the brilliant organisations already playing their part. Together, we can continue to build a city centre that is vibrant, welcoming, and safe for everyone.