‘By 2016 Poole will be very different’

With ambitious plans afoot for the Dolphin Shopping Centre to almost double in size, Poole could turn into a shoppers’ paradise to rival anything its neighbours have to offer.

There is plenty of space to expand on the Seldown side, currently providing parking for cars, and at the rear where buses are parked at the Kingland Road bus station depot.

“There is some very expensive land there, including the bus depot and the Seldown car park,” said Cllr Ron Parker, Borough of Poole cabinet portfolio holder for the local economy.

“That’s a very efficient package for redevelopment with a big anchor centre. It is a long-term aspiration. In the current economic market great locations aren’t everything,” he said.

The shopping centre already boasts a range of shops small and large including a Beales department store, M&S, BHS, Boots, Wilkinson and Primark.

Four years ago the council consulted on its Town Centre North area action plan which sets out ideas for the regeneration of the area around the shopping centre, bus station and Sainsbury’s supermarket.

The plan’s vision states: “By 2016 Poole town centre will be very different as a place to visit and spend time in.

“It will be a shopping destination of choice, retaining a loyal customer base from within Poole while attracting shoppers who previously were travelling elsewhere to shop and spend their leisure time.”

The preferred option to transform the town centre includes the development of at least one “mid to high end” department store in the Kingland Road area.

Owners Grosvenor Shopping Centre Fund, in its submission to the plan, favoured a “step change” to improve the retail offer.

“Key to this is the provision of at least one quality department store, although this would require significant supporting development (including substantial further retail floor space) in a carefully co-ordinated, comprehensive scheme,” it said at the time.

Alongside this would be an improved range of new shopping, a cinema, new bus station and residential uses.

“In shopping terms, it is assumed that the Kingland Road area will accommodate predominantly non-food retailing,” says the plan.

“The Sainsbury’s site to the south of the railway line will accommodate predominantly food shopping with a new, slightly larger, Sainsbury’s store, a two-deck car park and residential uses including affordable housing and student accommodation.”

Much of the town centre land is owned by Borough of Poole, which believes its plan – some of which has already taken place – is workable. “The town centre as a whole will be bustling, prosperous and safe,” it says.

“The vision is achievable, but the council, land owners, developers and other partners will have to focus efforts to deliver the objectives in the area action plan.”

FACTFILE

Built more than 40 years ago, the then Arndale Centre changed the way we shop.

It was one of only two covered shopping malls in the country, taking a range of shops inside a modern precinct.

When it celebrated its 40th birthday in 2009, among the 115 stores were a handful which had been there since its inception – M&S, Beales, Oswald Bailey, H. Samuel and Boots.

Poole’s run-down town centre was transformed when work began in June 1966 on a new road layout and the £2 million development began to rise from the remains of the High Street, Seldown Lane and Kingland Road.

The Arndale Property Trust built an American-style shopping mall with 93 shops, stores and offices phased over two years, a sports centre and a library.

When the centre opened on July 1 1969, the cost had risen to £3 million. But it was so successful during its first year, with 200,000 people a week passing through the doors, that plans for an extension were announced at its first birthday party.

Falkland Square was created and the name changed to the Dolphin Shopping Centre in 1988. Grosvenor acquired it in 2003.

Millions of pounds have been spent bringing it up to date and it attracts millions of shoppers a year.