The spin and misdirection that has come to define Friars Walk

With the latest shock announcement that the City of Newport is looking to 'borrow' a breathtaking £90 million to underwrite Friars Walk, it's worth recapping on the way we, the people of Newport, have been sold - or rather, mis-sold - the retail and entertainment development.

On 19th April 2012, the South Wales Argus proudly boasted that retail giant Debenhams had confirmed that it will open a 93,000 square foot department store as a key anchor for the Friars Walk development. Debenhams has always been dangled like a carrot over the heads of the people of Newport, as if the future of every last one of us depends on the department store being able to sell us aspirational clothing and household goods.

The Argus story signed off by stating the reward for our patience:

'By 2020, it is hoped that the [Newport] regeneration programme will have created 12,000 new jobs, generated £0.8 billion of private investment, completed 3,000 new homes and created one million square feet of new office floor space.'

However, that £0.8 billion figure needs something of a revision, because we now learn that the Friars Walk development hinges on the city's ability to borrow £90 million to underwrite the venture. Of course, at no time during the history of the new development has there ever been a suggestion that the city would need to take out any such loans.

We have been threatened, teased and lead to believe all sorts of nonsense to justify Friars Walk. We have been told the development and the future economic prosperity of the Newport would be jeopardised by the existence of the Chartist Mural, when the reality was it was never actually put to the developer Queenberry Real Estate. We have had the council's nodding dogs promising that the development would cost us nothing and was going to be financed by the private sector, yet here we are now facing the prospect that every economically active resident of the city will be putting their collective names to around £1042 per head to underwrite Friars Walk. And that's not including the cost to date of compulsory purchase of the businesses and buildings to make way for the development.

It's worth noting that the story linked above states 'Developer Queensberry Real Estate will demolish existing buildings in the John Frost Square area'. Well that was rubbish, because the tax payer ended up footing that particular bill.

It's all in the wording folks, and in this respect it's where Newport City Council gets it wrong time and time again. I'm sure that the people of Newport would find it easier to support Friars Walk if only they were given the facts and the real situation from the start. But we have been consistently told one one thing, only to find out that the actual situation is something completely different.

The current nonsense justification for the city going into hock to the tune of £90 million is that it will be paid back by Queensberry within a year with interest. Really? The reality is that there will undoubtedly be all sorts of caveats to the deal which will see the developer not obliged to pay back the going rate unless certain conditions are met, eg. footfall, revenue etc. Suffice to say, there is as much chance of the £90 million being paid back in the first year as there is of England winning the World Cup in Brazil. It's yet more empty spin and misdirection and nothing more.

So let's simplify exactly what it is that we are putting ourselves in hock for. Newport will be signing on the dotted line to take out a loan to pay for a development that the developer itself isn't prepared to take a risk on, or can't guarantee it can get funding for. What does that tell you?

The word 'unprecedented' is being used to describe the loan. Of course it's unprecedented. I can't believe that any town or city will have previously considered such a foolhardy enterprise.

Newport City Council and its nodding dog followers are once again pointing the finger at Debenhams. If Friars Walk isn't up and running by 2015, then Debenhams will walk [What is it about Newport that it deals with such petulant businesses? If its not Queensberry who will walk, it's Debenhams]. But that really shouldn't be our problem. It's not for Newport to borrow money to pay an unconvinced developer so the developer can guarantee the commitment of a petulant retailer. It's all wrong. Newport is supposed to be the customer here.

We simply do not need a new shopping centre. We don't need more shops. We have plenty of empty ones that need filling first and THEN, once they are full, think about expanding with a new shopping centre.

If Newport really wants to go into hock for £90 million, let's use it for something worthwhile. Nobody has raised a word of complaint about the new Admiral office being built opposite Newport Railway Station. That's because nobody can have any argument about 500 fully employed people suddenly appearing in the city centre. Certainly the retailers won't be complaining.

The £90 million would be better spent on building a number of new offices and business centres that the city can own as landlords for as long as they stand, collecting rent and increasing the number of businesses and salary earning people in the city centre. But new shops? When the developer won't take the risk?

It's a farce. Nothing more, nothing less.