NORTHAMPTON can act as a national blueprint for reimagining urban spaces with successful regeneration programmes, according to three retail experts appointed to the board of the town centre’s Business Improvement District.
Metro Bank’s director of retail and business banking Kerry Reynolds, Grosvenor Shopping Northampton centre director Greg Norman and restaurateur Naz Islam have begun work alongside other business leaders to oversee Northampton Business Improvement District’s work as it looks to make the town centre a better place to work, live and visit.
Kerry, who returns to the BID board having previously served as co-chair, said: “This is an important period for the town centre with multiple high-profile projects that are going to change the face of Northampton for years to come.
“The work being done to regenerate our town centre is very exciting. We are already seeing the positive impact of having the traders back on the Market Square, several businesses are underlining their commitment to the town by investing in their properties and, with the work on Abington Street and Fish Street nearing an end, we are getting close to having a town we can all be proud of once again.
“Northampton has had a tough decade or so but we are on the way back and I see our town being used an exemplar nationally of how to regenerate an ailing town centre, giving it a new lease of life and meeting the demands of the modern consumer, business and resident.”
Naz, who runs Saffron restaurant in Castilian Street, said: “As a town centre retailer I am well placed to understand the needs of businesses, the concerns we have and the aspirations we have to make Northampton somewhere to be truly proud of. I cannot wait to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in.
“The next few years have the potential to be hugely exciting for our town centre and I want to make sure things are done right so that both shoppers and businesses have a town centre they want to visit.”
Improvement works going on in Market Square, Abington Street and Fish Street are changing the public perception of Northampton, said Greg.
“It is only a start but people can see the upwards trajectory that this path is tracking and it is beginning to unlock the potential that our town centre so clearly has.
“It has been tough for town centres up and down the country but we are now starting to realise different ways they can be used and that natural evolution has begun, with Northampton very much at the forefront of what a modern, vibrant 21st-century town centre needs to be.”
The new directors join a board headed by co-chairs Sali Brown, of Chelton Brown Lettings & Sales, and Andrea Smith, of Franklins Solicitors.
The BID’s operations manager Mark Mullen said: “I am looking forward to working with our new board members as we strive to deliver projects of value for our businesses that attract more people into our town centre.”
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