Shopfronts in 2 of the Island’s major towns may have to be changed if new planning guidance is adopted by the Isle of Wight Council.
The Newport and Ryde Commercial Frontages Design Guide aims to protect the identity of the town’s historic high streets.
It sets out a new standard for commercial properties to ensure their visual appearance enhances the conservation area, instead of having a detrimental impact after both towns were accepted into Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zones programme in 2019.
The draft design guide says much of Newport High Street has lost its architectural heritage, with the stretch west of St James’ Street particularly affected, and characterised by ‘run-down or bland’ shopfronts of national retail chains.
The shopfronts, the document says, do not showcase the heritage of their buildings or what lies within the town.
In Ryde, the High Street is said to lack the same ‘place appeal’ as Union Street, again with national chains interrupting fine historic shopfronts.
Now, the design guide sets out how shop owners and landlords can redesign or refurbish their building fronts, starting with understanding the building, its heritage and assessing it in detail. It says nearly all shopfronts in the towns can be improved.
The guide recommends all shopfronts should consider a cosmetic refresh before potential further work like repair and reinstatement or renewal goes ahead, with reference to the previous heritage of the area. It also includes a final design checklist for owners to assess their proposed design, including whether the shopfront fits in the existing streetscape, are there historic details which can be retained and enhanced and whether the shop is accessible for all.
The authority is looking for people’s feedback on the draft design guide before it is adopted to the local plan as a supplementary planning document.
You can view the draft supplementary design guide at beta.iow.gov.uk/planning/local-plan/supplementary-planning-documents.
The consultation runs until midday on 1st August. Comments can be submitted either via email to [email protected] or by letter to the council’s Planning Services, Seaclose Office, Fairlee Road, Newport, PO30 2QS.
County Hall being the most obvious example in Newport High Street !!
Knock it down, it serves no useful purpose…
Please can I operate the ball and chain?
Gimmie a go
Such a sorry sight. Throw back to the 1960s
Be fair, our high streets have not been entirely modernised.
We, thanks to high council tax have more poor, more food banks, more charity shops, and more stealing, so, in many ways we have retained and added to the Dickensian appearance, especially with the rutted pot hole, litter strewn, and weed grown in streets.
This is something that our council planning department should have done from the beginning
Too busy with cosy developers to care at all imo
All this to be paid for by whom ?
And how are shop owners going to find the money to do this? People aren’t spending they can’t afford to!
There will not be any shops soon, no worry about the fronts. Windows fl of unopened letters…..
The Government and the I W Council need to get their priorities right. Shop owners are struggling , trying to get them to take on the cost of this project is a further ingredient in a recipe for disaster.
The move to online shopping has changed everything , along with expensive parking and high energy costs. Add in business rates and the shop owners do not stand a chance,
I support the idea in principle but it is no longer commercially viable, unless it is funded fully by central government , that’s a NO then.
So let’s destroy towns more and national chains will not bother to come. Council are to blame for decline as now,making Poundland or MK remove signs won’t make any difference.other reason Union Street better is free parking close to shops
Because making life more difficult for high street traders in a high street where one in three shops is boarded up makes perfect sense?
True but bring back Starbucks
Not before time. The shopping High Streets have become very tacky-looking, Too much Poundland-ism.
Agree, but it needs paying for my Central Government , the retailers cannot afford it.
high streets always reflect the demographic they serve. In other words, if the local populace are in general struggling for money, then you see poundland, charity shops, bookies and other discount retailers as the main players, however, if all your locals are cashed up, then it will be designer name brands that are the main players, with high end cafes/bars and not much else.
saying they are tacky looking needs to be balanced with how the customers look – do they look tacky as well, if so, then tacky looking is correct, as it will attract the tacky looking majority, however, if not, then those tacky looking shops will fail.
Tacky looking. Have you seen high street rents? its a wonder they survive at all. Is it greedy landlords or greedy estate agents ?? It costs thousands to put keys in the door Bet they would all love posh frontages
Unfortunately these stores are what we need in a recession
i didn’t think there was any shops in Newport now. is it not a ghost town like most island towns. its just another rundown dump
What about the conservation areas they ignore.
Bring back Woolworths…..!
Bring back Wrays!
Another great innotive idea from the clueless IOW council! NOT!
But never mind the 40 odd empty shops in Newport looking an eyesore, all run down and shabby.
Same in Ryde.
Yes, let’s all go back to the dark ages. Oh, I forgot, the island is still there. I think there are much more important issues to deal with at the moment than what shop fronts look like. Our council wouldn’t understand that though.
Is the Isle of Wight council still Conservative or a Unity Council? I get so confused, especially as a new chair took over the lead and went off sick? Who is leading it now? Yes, shop signs within a conservation area need to be addressed, but shouldn’t the council have addressed that when a building was changed for use or modifications made?
The signage at County Hall doesn’t reflect or promote an image of a town with conservation rules. Does the Isle of Wight council have different rules for themselves?
They need to come to Sandown and have a good look.
So now empty shop must fit in architecturally…..even though they’ll still be empty? Maybe they could be turned into coffee shops. We seem to be a bit short of them.
I would have thought that the council would have had much more to concern themselves with, and take action on, than what the shop fronts look like in local towns on the island.
If this is really important to them it is a bit worrying isn’t it ?
But that’s just it the council DON’T concern themselves about things other then their pay raises! Pull the ladder up jack I’m alright!
I would have thought that the council would have more to work on than what shopfronts look like.
God help us all
Oh look more taxpayer funded bureaucracy as the meddlesome council decide they are going to meddle even more, which will undoubtedly be to the detriment of anything they touch in spite of what they claim – their blocking off of the lower high street during Covid pretty much finished it off – add this to their continuing ripoff car park charges and double yellow line painting anywhere they can find and they’ll have the whole shopping area killed off within 2 years, whilst smugly claiming their public sector wrecking ball has simply made it safer and more ‘sustainable’ in order to fight ‘climate change’
It’s the rest of the island the council should be doing something…..stop the bloody building and house the island residents first..
How about the building in East Street, that looks as if it was left over from the Festival of Britain 1951.