£10 million, 200 job Carlisle retail park gets go ahead

[Mellijelli]

So it looks like they have finally approved the re-development of Carlisle’s St Nicholas Gate retail park scheme in London Road, could create 200 jobs (http://www.careersandjobsuk.com/)
and almost double the amount of floorspace, the plans were declined last year sometime as they said they wanted a rethink about the conservation aspects of it, conservation officers said that the contemporary design was appalling.

Savills, have now come up with new plans which have gotten great response and support from councilors so must be a big difference in plans than the original ideas put forward i think judging from this quote:

Fellow Conservative David Morton said: “The southern gateway to the city centre has been an appalling mess for a long period of time. This revised application is a huge improvement on what was proposed previously.”

Cant wait to see what they have come up with now :)

Read the article here: News & Star (http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/10-million-200-job-carlisle-retail-park-gets-go-ahead-1.699928?referrerPath=home)

[Dark Phoenyx]

Ive been following this for a while now, and Im glad they finally got the go ahead.

Thanks for finding the article, i must have missed it yesterday :D

Do you think theyll go with steel and glass? or try beautify it a bit while keeping to its original structure?

[Mellijelli]

No the original plans were declined because of that very reason, they dont want it too modern, the revised plans are according to standards now and they are happy with what they intend to do which is stick to the more traditional look.

[Dark Phoenyx]

I cant wait to see wot they do tho. Above and beyond the work its providing, its great that they rebuild the old, instead of just destroying more land to build on.

[Mellijelli]

Yeah to renovate is best i think too, i dont like when they start building up areas with all sorts of new structures, i like some open space too, thats why i dont think id like living in a concrete jungle at all ;)

[m8internet]

So it looks like they have finally approved the re-development of Carlisle’s St Nicholas Gate retail park scheme in London Road, could create 200 jobs[/url]
What a load of spin and nonsense
Are these the 200 jobs that already exist?
Are these an ADDITIONAL 200 jobs?
Are these 200 jobs simply from an increased number of retailers (ie 100 jobs in a store plus a further 100 elsewhere)

I recently read a new report that 350 jobs had been "created" in a new store
Historically this store had always existed, it was simply a replacement "new" store
When I actually visited the store almost all the staff were the same (about 50), even the same management team
So I therefore thought it was a typo (350 instead of 50)
However, no, the retailer had included :
All the temporary contractors who had been involved in demolishing the previous premises (but these weren't new jobs as that company had already existed)
All the temporary contractors who had been involved in building the new premises (and again, these weren't new jobs either)
All the people at the companies head office who had temporarily been assigned to this new build project (yes, again these weren't new jobs either)
All the new staff (as above, they were in fact in the old staff, although when I asked there were in fact four "new" staff", but the hours for the store hadn't changed)

Total staff prior to closure : 50
Total staff when store closed for replacement : 0
Total staff when store reopened : 50 (ie "new" staff)

Why do companies do this?
Depending on where they are they may qualify for local authority grants, as a result of which it looks good for the area

[Dark Phoenyx]

Look, from what ive noticed nowdays, you need to be directy involved with projects to get any sense of truth from them.

So many newspapers exagerate the truth. But i have read similar reports from other online newspapers so maybe after its built and the new areas finally have stores in, or the stores are enlarged they might actually hire more staff.

It seems to make sense to me, you cant reopen a store thats been enlarged somewhat, and expect a small team to handle that as well, you will need more people to work on that section.

[Mellijelli]

If they have added new sections and have a wider range of goods to oversee then they would need more staff like floor managers, packers and so on, thing is some companies are cutting back on staff rather than hiring more and existing staff are probably suffering because of it, but a store that is expanding should be able to hire more staff if they have money to expand, i would agree to that.

[Dark Phoenyx]

precisely. so you have to ask yourself, what now? hows is that possible.

[shopowner]

Surely 'they' wouldn't need to improve and re-construct anything if the original buildings were built to last longer than ten minutes ? Go to Glasgow and other cities around the UK to see tenement and other buildings still going strong after 100 years. Forget ancestral mansions built with no regard to cost, these older dwellings were 'cheap' housing and are still safe to use so why can't a law be passed to design city centre shops and offices with a 100 year minimum lifespan instead of constantly spoiling the countryside with new eyesores ?
Of course, I forgot just how many government ministers get some kind of payment (now or future) from the construction industry. I'll have to start reading private eye again and get really angry !!

[Mellijelli]

Ur right Shopowner, there have been many over the last months that have been torn down and modernized, leaves much to be desired in the historical sence of things.

Iv noticed over the years how everything is more plastic, cheap and not built to last long, from toys to cars to buildings, its sad really :( even the classic sweets one used to find in shops like the boxes of sugus for example are not made the way they used to make them, the flavors are all wrong, even jelly tots are not what they used to be, maybe a silly example but one notices these things.