How does Newbury stack up as a shopping destination?

Report by James Aldridge

Located around 30 minutes drive from each other, there is a lot of cross-travel between Reading and Newbury for many reasons from work to leisure.

Reading, widely seen as the capital of the Thames Valley is undoubtedly an employment hub and shopping destination.

But Newbury has many of the same shops and eateries as Reading does, with the benefit of a traditional market town feel.

Both towns have at least one department store and at least one all-you-can-eat buffet.

In some cases, Newbury’s town centre beats Reading, as it has a Robert Dyas and 7Bone Burger which are missing in Reading town centre, with 7Bone relocating to Phantom Brewery in the Meadow Road industrial area.

So how does Newbury stack up against Reading as a go-to shopping destination?

A retail property marketing expert has judged the strengths and weaknesses of both of the town centres.

Fiona Brownfoot,  director of retail, restaurant and leisure at commercial property marketers Hicks Baker said: “Newbury doesn’t flow at all well, with the Parkway Shopping Centre being built parallel to the prime spot with so little integration in terms of the entrances into the new scheme.

“I think that is a very poor example of how you put new retail space in a town and integrate it, and it’s really important to integrate it.”

Fiona made the comments in an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service. She was challenged with the suggestion that towns like Wokingham and Newbury are historic towns, making shopping integration difficult.

In reply, Fiona said: “But that’s that’s great because they both have some real character. What you’ve got to do is work with that character.”

Based on shopper perception, Newbury may be stronger than Reading for independent businesses. However, Fiona argued Reading is still a healthy market for independents.

She said: “Last time I checked, something like 46 per cent of units in Reading were held by independents, which is surprisingly high.”

Independent businesses are by definition those which have less than five units.

Fiona also said that shopping centres are struggling due to redevelopment projects. An example is Kennet Shopping Centre in Newbury, subject of a plan to replace it with 30 new shops and around 400 homes called ‘Eagle Quarter’.

On that project, she said: “That one is going to be very, very interesting.

“I’m fascinated to see what the owner of that scheme is going to do with it because whilst you’ve got a lot of vacancies, shopping centres are not easily redeveloped because usually you have will have a number of existing leases and if those leases are very long then the only way you are going to get vacant possession is by negotiation and agreement with that tenant, so effectively buying them out.

“A) you don’t know whether you can because they’ve got to agree to it, and B) you don’t know how much it will cost you. So you’ve got two big unknown factors there.

“At Kennet Shopping, there’s something like 17 existing leases. So although you’ve got a majority of the centre is empty, you’ve still got 17 leases in place.”

She went on to explain that protected leases, which function as business-guaranteed tenancies, makes for a difficult shopping environment.

You can view the latest application for the Kennet centre by typing reference 23/02094/FULMAJ into West Berkshire Council’s planning portal.

Broad Street Mall in Reading is also subject to a plan to demolish the rear of the site so that towers containing a total of 644 apartments can be built.

The project has put six units at risk, with the Audio T equipment store relocating to Swallowfield and Sardinian restaurant Pepe Sale along Queens Walk being seen closed in July.

You can view the application for the Broad Street Mall project by typing reference  240173 i into Reading Borough Council’s planning portal.