The Glassworks

Theres one upstairs smack above the downstairs one as well mate.

 

But the unit is reserved a must stay empty until he decides he wants to use it right? As I understand it there's no clause at all compelling him to use the space within the next 6 months or a year. Seems a win-win situation to me for him, sign a long-term lease with no rent then take your time deciding what to do. If you don't open it there's no penalty or fine so you can just sit in it until the retail market becomes more stable and get to choose which of your many brands you eventually decide to open, if any. He wins, the glassworks loses out.

As I've said though, I don't blame the council, these kind of leases are common for big name retailers. I just feel like because it's with such a morally bankrupt person like Mike Ashley that it's not a good idea. The fact he's delayed opening long after other retailers who signed up at the same time as him did and is still undecided what he's going to open suggests I'm right.

As for the former b&q. Well it was a stupid decision to build it in the first place which even b&q admitted but they'd sunk so much money in over the years trying to get the site before acquiring the homebase site as well that they couldn't back out without huge losses. As soon as they pulled out it should have been divided into smaller units, big mistake leaving it as one large unit

 

The council should change the UDP,so that land and the land next door to be used for residential, with possibly building a road onto White Cross lane. The land is designated employment land but no developers have tried to realise it's potential. The town centre development is a very progressive move,if public transport links with other Yorkshire towns could be improved, then Barnsley is a good leisure and shopping destination.

 

They are indoor toilets talking about normal outdoor ones you know the ones that cease to exist.

 

What's the difference really? If I need a **** I don't tend to walk past a toilet because it has a roof

 

Harron homes already have plans in for the land behind B&Q, but they’re back and forth with the council at the minute due to disagreements with the layout and housing mix. There aren’t any plans for another access road though, just minor ‘improvements’ to Stairfoot roundabout.

 

You’ll struggle to find outdoor toilets in most places these days for good reason. They’re filthy, usually attract antisocial behaviour, and are costly to maintain.

 

Regarding the B&Q site I thought (maybe wrongly) that jysk had taken the site as it was announced a few years ago now they were opening a store in barnsley and that was the only unit of size available that made sense. Whatever happened to that deal?

 

That's going between b&m and Dunelm in one of the existing units down there. The old Harvey's unit I think

 

The exception being Llandudno , they have them all over the place

 

"Busting for a pi$$ luv"
"Some toilets in here"
" INDOOR TOILETS? Don't be ridiculous I'll hold it"

 

Quite a number of factors meant B&Q ended up with Cortonwood and Stairfoot, but they didn’t have to take the Cortonwood site when it went tits up with Homebase. Although, I appreciate things we’re taking too long with Stairfoot and they had to make a decision. They did try to offload the Stairfoot site a number of times, but were only successful when Sainsbury’s agreed to take it.

The messing around once again to obtain Secretary of State approval to convert it, plus a requirement by the council for Sainsburys to fund changes to the road layout meant approval wasn’t granted for a long time. By which time Sainsbury’s weren’t doing as well and decided the store wasn’t viable. Since then the unit has been available to let. It’s been marketed as a standalone unit, and as separate smaller units, but nobody wants it!

 

B&Q would have been much better keeping hold of the smaller shop on the original B&Q roundabout opposite Asda in my view. The DIY fasnination was always going to pass by and a small store would do them good.

BTW, is there a Lidl anywhere in Stairfoot? (Cunning plans and all that)

 

You know the size of B&Q is one of the reasons I avoid the place. If I can't get it at Wickes I go online unless I'm in a rush.

 

I could be wrong, because I was quite young when that particular B&Q closed, but didn't they close it because the building was unsafe. Didn't they tear it down, before it reopened as PC World? Or it has Asbestos?

Could be completely misremembering as I think I was about 10 when it closed.

 

There's a massive Lidl on the Wombwell bypass.

 

I'm sure it's the same building that just got redesigned a little bit isn't it?

It wasn't closed due to being unsafe, it's just the b&q wanted to increase the size in the town and get away from the roundabout that they saw as inconvenient and driving shoppers away.

They tried for years to secure the stairfoot site and get planning permission and spent a lot of money doing so. Then homebase built a store at cortonwood but had problems so offered the store to b&q at a bargain so they took it and it did REALLY well (over half a million a week). Then they got planning permission for the stairfoot site and the realised they'd already plowed too much money in (we're talking millions with nothing to show) to back out so they went ahead and built the store. It was an instant failure which fairly regularly made a loss but not only did that store make a loss but the cortonwood store saw profits fall too with sales dropping by around £7m per year. That's when they realised they had to cut their losses so closed the stairfoot site.

 

Give over, it's only little

 

So the official glassworks website has finally updated its leasing page (they obviously paid attention to my tweet ) now shows 200 degrees coffee new look and is actually showing flannels a well. Noticed upstairs is almost completely full with just 2 units left and a third earmarked for the boom battle bar. Ground floor has a few units left with two facing cheapside being under legal one being urban burger but what’s the other? Or is that where either marshmallow blends or dolly’s is going. Anyway it’s getting there

 

SU16a = Dolly’s
SU1 = Urban Burger
SU1a = Unknown
K04 = Marshmallow Blends

Only one upstairs unit is available and that’s L3. The 200 Degrees unit (SU20) has two floors, but they’re only using one of them. As far as I’m aware, there’s no space to be able to access that upper floor to be able to offer it as a standalone unit so it doesn’t make sense to show it as available on the leasing plan. I don’t know why the NHS didn’t just take it.