That shabby shopping centre...

A replacement for soemthing shabby?

If someone called your shopping centre shabby and outdated and suggested few people enjoy shopping there you’d be pretty unhappy, right?

Wrong. In Westfield’s case it was entirely happy to spread the bad news about Broadmarsh this week.

It may have a motive for releasing the results of a shoppers’ survey, though: on Wednesday, Nottingham City Council planners will vote on whether to give the go-ahead to plans for a £500m redevelopment of the centre.
And Westfield is hardly telling us something we didn’t know already. Broadmarsh is a 1960s Arndale dinosaur which should have been redeveloped at least a decade ago. High end retail chains voted with their feet. To call it outdated is an understatement.
The bigger issue here – one which Westfield has now acknowledged – is that its redevelopment is an opportunity to do more than play retail catch-up.
It is a chance to get rid of a brutalist concrete eyesore and present people who come in from the railway station approach with a proper entrance to Nottingham – one which is modern, upmarket and has street scenes which lead you to the heart of the place.
Westfield’s decision to release information about a survey which lays bare how poor shoppers think the current centre is does more than up the ante at development control.
It also suggests that, after all the years we've been waiting for Westfield to get on with it, the Aussies are at last ready to push the button.
They have already committed to a £40m spend on the main square in the existing centre and the walk that leads up to Bridlesmith Gate.
That side of things seems to have gone quiet, though. Instead, a lot of noise is now being made about the bigger redevelopment and extension of Broadmarsh.
So what’s Westfield up to?