Eagles Meadow (again)
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Posts
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Eagles Meadow is shrinking by the week from the bridge down, she who must be obeyed said the other day that if they had initially included/planned free parking when it was first built it would be a different story than the way it is going now ???
It started dying from when the units first took out their 10 year lease. A shopping retail centre which is a wind tunnel with no roof was dead in the water before trading began. Along with Ty Pawb it is an eyesore on the town.
Developers should have looked at the prospects of developing the town centre with parking facilities around the
edge of the town. It says a lot when even coffee shops and pound stores pull out.I really cannot understand why Eagles Meadow is singled out so frequently, is it anything to do with certain people glorifying in its perceived demise?
If it was treated even handedly and compared to the shop closures in the town centre or indeed, the shut up or empty stalls in the meat market, I maybe able to understand it.
Eagles Meadow is absolutely no different to similar malls anywhere else in the country. Only yesterday, on the national news, it was reported that a similar facility was for sale with a reserve price of £1. The retail shopping sector is dying on its feet and no amount of blaming (slightly) out of town developments will change that.
As much as I appreciate the sterling efforts of Nigel Lewis and his band of merry men in trying to reverse the fortunes of Wrexham town centre, there must inevitably come a time when one has to accept the fight is being lost, universally.Eagles Meadow is in direct competition with Broughton on one front (car owners) which has free parking and more shops facilities etc. and because it is away from the main town centre and bus station it doesn’t attract people to walk down there, to walk back with all the shopping…
EM could and should have been like Broughton at least on one front (cars)
Like Ty Pawb it is wrong on many fronts for Wrexham..
Ten years ago Broughton was pretty grim.. But it’s now thriving.
It does have advantages such as accessibility and of course free parking, but equally you could say EM is central to residential areas so should be pulling in walking visitors..Fundamentally, it’s Broughton’s smart investment and good management that now sets the two apart..
Eagles Meadow along with many other shopping centres and High Streets are a retail experience that people who no longer want. Rather than thinking these places will get back to 100% occupancy are real plan should be developed to administer palliative care and accept that this is the way forward – use the space for housing with just a few units for coffee and food.
Places like Eagles Meadow will be seen as part of the history of Wrexham come and gone. the property owner is probably still holding on at present a there is income being generated from the apartments – without these it would probably have been shut down.
One obvious indicator that Eagles Meadow is on a downhill is that Kevin Critchley one of the proclaimed voices of retailing in Wrexham whenever the media are looking for comments is now silent – the “Centre of the retile universe” in Wrexham is fast disappearing into a Black Hole..To late now and spilt milk and all that, but couldn’t it, shouldn’t it have been done different, no roof was always going to be an issue, but I still think parking is the big issue as with the rest of the town still now.
In Mold people can park on the High street for 30 mins and cars are popping in and out all day just getting the odd things someone takes their place and on it goes generating money for the smaller shops there and the town is thriving, although they did increase the parking cost there last year, but to be fair they did put it down a bit after an outcry about the increase.
In Prestatyn (as mentioned before) there is free parking for 3 hours in the relatively new shopping park and this has changed the fortunes of the whole town dramatically with a bit of fore-site.
Going back to Adams comment about Broughton, there it is…
Fundamentally, it’s Broughton’s smart investment and good management that now sets the two apart..
Let me first say that, like many of you, I agree that “High Street” shopping is on it’s knees The addition of EM has made the situation worse for Wrexham because it just adds retail space with no retailers to fill it. But, until EM came along, Wrexham never had (for example) a Debenhams. The old M&S store did not meet their then demands which is to have park and collect facilities available adjacent to the store and would probably have closed already.
However, my main point is to question why anyone would rather pay the price of fuel to drive to (say) Broughton, just to save the £1.50 parking charge (for up to 3 hours) at Eagles Meadow. I bet the drive costs more than £2.00
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