Plans to bring more restaurants and a multiplex cinema to Huddersfield town centre have been welcomed by business figures.
Kingsgate owner WD Huddersfield Ltd has unveiled Kingsgate Leisure – a £15m scheme to extend the shopping complex to provide a multi-screen cinema and six ‘casual dining’ restaurants linked to the existing mall and with a new entrance onto Cross Church Street.
The company said the moved aimed to boost Huddersfield’s evening economy by giving people reasons to stay in the town centre after office hours.
The move found support from veteran town centre retailer David Whittle, of fashion store Peters – who has revealed plans of his own to move Peters from its King Street premises to a new site at the Kirkgate end of the Packhorse Centre.
Mr Whittle said: “It is too easy to knock the town but there is a lot happening in Huddersfield and I think the town is on the up. The town is buzzing. Kingsgate is virtually full and we need a cinema and restaurants in the town centre.”
Mr Whittle said he and his wife Caroline tended to go to Leeds or Manchester for a night out but said: “We would love to spend that time in the town centre.”
Steven Leigh, head of policy at the Lockwood-based Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, also welcomed the Kingsgate plan – but urged the Government and local authorities to play their part in promoting town centres by tackling high business rates and parking charges.
“It is essential we try to revitalise our town and city centres and the Broad Street Plaza development in Halifax is a good example of how we can bolster the night time economy,” he said.
“It has been a long, hard recession and it is vital we introduce more incentives to get things going again.
“We would like to see a full review of business rates in this country because that is a major problem for many retail outlets. These huge rates have to be paid whether the store is making a profit or not and whether the shop door is open or not.
“We would also like to see from Kirklees Council a realistic policy on car parking. We know people don’t like to pay to park and one difficulty we have is people going to out-of-town retail centres where parking is free rather than town centre where it is not.”
Mr Leigh added “We are really encouraged to hear about the Kingsgate Leisure initiative but the policy makers have to be realistic about business rates and car parking charges to give town centre retailers a chance.”
