Portas town centre bid is unsuccessful

11:33am Wednesday 30th May 2012 in News

A “DISAPPOINTED” Thurrock Council has vowed to push on with the regeneration of Grays town centre, after its bid to be a Portas Pilot failed.

Thurrock was one of more than 370 local authorities which applied for £100,000 of funding from the Government following retail guru Mary Portas’ review of Britain’s high streets.

The 12 towns chosen, none of which are in Essex, will get funding to help make improvements to their high streets along with a tailored package of support from both local government minister Grant Shapps, and Mary Portas.

Due to the high number of exceptional bids, Mr Shapps has announced a further 15 towns will now be picked to be pilots in a second round of the competition later in the year.

Cllr Andy Smith, Thurrock’s cabinet member for regeneration, said: “Obviously we are disappointed we did not succeed in this round of government funding and we are hopeful that there will be more success in the second round.

“However, this does not mean we just sit back and wait. Improving Grays town centre is a priority for the council so we are moving ahead with our proposals and a Grays Town Team.”

The town team was set to hold its first meeting yesterday (Thursday, May 31), and will spend the coming months working out how to spend the funds the council has allocated for the regeneration of Grays town centre.

The council secured £100,000 from the Government’s High Street Innovation Fund, designed to help councils reduce the number of empty shops in their areas, and it has also set aside £100,000 of planning gain money for the project.

The 12 towns which were successful in the first round of the competition were Bedford, Croydon, Dartford, Bedminister, Liskeard, Margate, Market Rasen, Nelson, Newbiggin by the Sea, Stockport, Stockton on Tees, and Wolverhampton.

Comments(13)

FullSP says...
2:58pm Wed 30 May 12

Crying out loud......as if 100k was gonna change Grays Town Centre. You would need £10m to knock it all down and start again...!!

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Polikala says...
12:10pm Thu 31 May 12

Grays Town Centre is in terminal decline, with half naked alcoholics, adorning the benches, groups of mailingering individuals making it virtually a no go area after 6pm, Jermey Kyle show rejects, nail salons, exotic barbers with currency facilities (???), pawn shops, charity shops, grimy pedestrian precinct etc etc. Mary Portas probably took one look and thought that Grays is beyond salvation. Blimey - even McDonalds deserted us!

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samsara says...
3:06pm Thu 31 May 12

Grays was vibrant in the 19th and early 20th century. (4 cinemas !) What changed? Everything. Basildon, Romford, family cars, Lakeside, Sainsbury, Asda, Tesco, Woolworth's demise etc. It's not just one thing and it was a gradual, probably, inevitable decline.
People decry pound shops. I would suggest that PoundWorld? (the one where Woolworths was) is helping prop up Grays because there are some real bargains in there. That is a professional organisation. If shops like that ever move out then surely Grays will implode into a very small Black Hole.

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samsara says...
3:11pm Thu 31 May 12

p.s. A the Words "Black Hole" is not an excuse for the racists to pop out of their little orc-holes. I meant it in scientific terms.

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Bernard 87 says...
4:05pm Thu 31 May 12

Polikala is spot on. A visit to Grays yesterday was an experience i'd rather forget. I've never seen a more random bunch of folk standing around doing absolutely nothing but looking shifty.

100K is not a lot of money but Grays needs all it can get!

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Cvh says...
5:10pm Thu 31 May 12

Grays town indeed needs to be reduced to rubble and started over

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Marcus P says...
7:23pm Thu 31 May 12

If you wish to experience the feeling of visiting a foreign country there is no need to book expensive holidays. All you have to do is, simply pop in to Grays and walk around for at least 15 minutes before a single word of English can be heard.

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Polikala says...
1:35pm Fri 1 Jun 12

Could this be the reason why there is no bunting etc etc to commemorate the Queen's jubilee in Grays 'city' centre?

Is the council afraid of alienating or upsetting certain sections of Grays' nouveau society?

If that is the case, then that is tantamount to treason in my book!

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d_2da_ougle says...
12:00pm Sat 2 Jun 12

grays town center like i have said before yes the cultural mix of forigen shops dont help but it really is not big enough in my opnion to class as a town center, grays has a small indoor covers shopping center and proberly about 100 meters of main high street, is romford this short, what about southend is their high street this short or brentwood, living in the shadow of lakeside no major business is going to look at grays and say right the daily visitor count is say 1000 people lets set up our flag ship store here when lakeside is just around the corner with a footfall of people that eclipses grays, grays is just not a good place to set up business fact it needs to be much larger a hell of a lot i rekon grays highstreet length will proberly fit into southend around 6 times anyone disagree with this statment

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A.N.Other says...
6:01pm Sat 2 Jun 12

Isn't it time for Thurock to be split into half, with one half - everything from Tilbury/Chadwell St Mary being merged into London and everything East of East Tilbury being handed over to Basildon?

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d_2da_ougle says...
9:35am Sun 3 Jun 12

it was once upon a time all lbc, feel like it now dont need to give reasons but its like a mini dagenham out here

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Marcus P says...
4:40pm Sun 3 Jun 12

I was out in Grays yesterday afternoon ( Saturday). The one thing that struck me was the lack of people actually spending in the shops or the market stalls. There two gangs of youths one all white and the other all black hanging around the High Street and creating an edgy atmosphere. I didn't see a single Policeman or plastic copper in sight. If the council wants to get more people in Grays try having some sort of Police presence in the town at weekends. It just may help turn this place around.

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Thurrockbob says...
4:47pm Mon 4 Jun 12

Marcus P wrote:
I was out in Grays yesterday afternoon ( Saturday). The one thing that struck me was the lack of people actually spending in the shops or the market stalls. There two gangs of youths one all white and the other all black hanging around the High Street and creating an edgy atmosphere. I didn't see a single Policeman or plastic copper in sight. If the council wants to get more people in Grays try having some sort of Police presence in the town at weekends. It just may help turn this place around.
Get a Police presence? You must be joking ..... this is the essex police you are talking about, when they do come out they just smile and walk past the group of drunks that are drinking out of cans and bottles, (even though there is a prohibition area), they drive past yobs and pretend they are not there. Essex Police .... jokes tha lot of them!

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