Why it's wrong to demonise Queensberry

In all the furore surrounding - and indeed triggered by - the destruction of the Chartist Mural, people are venting their anger in many directions, some right, and some not so. Queensberry Real Estate, the developer of Friar's Walk, is increasingly being talked about in negative terms. But the reality is that Queensberry is almost definitely an innocent party in all this.

A little bit of background on my experience here...

For some time I worked for a very good PR company in Bath. I was very happy there and I enjoyed the city, the team I worked with, and the clients I looked after. Our office - in a very quaint converted townhouse in Lower Borough Walls - sat on the verge of the SouthGate Centre, one of Queensberry's landmark shopping centre developments.

One of the clients I looked after was Bath Business Improvement District (BathBID). A BID is a business-led and business funded body formed to improve a defined commercial area. It was set up by Bath and North East Somerset Council (BaNES) and basically all businesses over a certain revenue have an extra 'tax' (for want of a better word) that they pay which goes into a pot to help with the promotion and management of the BID area. It's a great idea and the BathBID delivers real results - from better security and refuse management, to organisation of events like the Christmas Market, to getting John Cleese to turn on the Christmas lights. Newport could really benefit from having a BID, and indeed for taking lessons on how to run a city from BaNES and the BathBID. But that's for another blog.

SouthGate Centre (and the businesses within) is a significant contributor to the BathBID, and so I spent a lot of time either in SouthGate Centre, or working with the Centre management on various stories and initiatives.

The one thing I can tell you about Queensberry is; they are very, very good at what they do. SouthGate Centre revitalised a part of the city which was in dire need of attention (between the railways station and the bus station). Queensberry delivered a shopping centre that is very well designed, very convenient and easy to use, and extremely well managed and promoted. From moving in fake beaches and deckchairs in summer, to Christmas events, there is always something going on there and it is genuinely a really nice place to be.

Crucially, Queensberry delivered a development which perfectly compliments the city of Bath. From the look to the ambiance, it just works. It doesn't sit as a 'sore thumb'.

SouthGate Centre, Bath. A Queensberry development that compliments the city

We need to appreciate here that Bath is a heritage city that has in place a very strict rule book for building and development, and even for how shops present themselves. For example, if you want to build you need to use Oolitic Limestone - better known as Bath Stone, the warm honey-coloured stone that defines the city. Even the global giants McDonalds and Starbucks are restricted on how they present themselves. They can't simply do as they please, as it would appear they are allowed to over here in Newport. There is a rulebook in place, and they like it or lump it.

Queensberry, as a highly professional and experienced developer will not have railed against the design considerations and limitations when they read the brief and starting their thinking about SouthGate Centre. They will have considered it an exciting challenge to rise to. The thinking would have been simple, 'Right team, we need to develop a shopping centre in Bath. It needs to use Bath Stone, and it needs to fit in with the wider Bath landscape. Thinking caps on...'

Ultimately, they will have taken great delight when their design ticked all the boxes and was approved by BaNES.

So let's now look at the Friar's Walk development in Newport which I'm personally against, but only because I don't see that we need more new shops [see my previous blog for the reasons why]. But if we are going to have Friar's Walk, then I'm glad that Queensberry got the gig because it won't be half-arsed. It will look good and it will be well managed.

We - the people of Newport - were 'threatened' many times that the Chartist Mural would jeopardise the Friar's Walk development. The inference was that if we didn't shut up our whinging, Queensberry would go off in a huff and never look back. Like so many naughty kids we were told to sit down and be quiet or Santa wouldn't come.

I don't believe this for one moment.

My suspicion is that what we have here is a particularly negative aspect of Welsh political and business culture - fear.

I suspect that the Council never actually approached Queensberry to talk about the issue of the mural and certainly never thought to stipulate that the mural was incorporated into any design for approval. The Council just IMAGINED that Queensberry would react negatively and, as is so often the case, decided to simply not raise the problem to the developer. Instead, they thought they could sort the issue out themselves, and as we now see, this was an incredibly foolhardy approach which has done nobody any favours, including Queensberry.

I believe that, if Queensberry had been invited to tender a design which incorporated the mural, they would have simply relished the challenge, added it to the brief, and would have done what was required with no problem. This is what they do. This is why they are good at what they do.

Of course I stand to be corrected, and I welcome any response from the Council that they DID stipulate the incorporation of the mural at the invitation to tender. But I really don't expect that to be the case, and I will certainly be both surprised and disappointed if Queensberry actually turn out to be the stroppy teenagers that Newport City Council has, through their threats, inferred they are.

So don't automatically diss Queenberry Real Estate. We are all in the dark about the exact timeline and dialogue leading up to the destruction of the Chartist Mural and the briefing and approval for Friar's Walk. Queensberry are, in all likelihood, holding their heads in their hands over the complete pig's ear Newport City Council has made of this so far, and of how they have been dragged into this as part of Team Bad Guy by the Council's ineptitude, and ultimately how the Council has delivered at their door bad PR and bad feeling even before demolition has started to make way for Friar's Walk.