Hereford shopping centre seeks to ride challenges

Over £200,000 is being spent on damp-proofing part of Hereford’s Maylord Orchards shopping centre, while the centre’s main retail unit has brought no income for over a year.

The centre’s owner Herefordshire Council said its £201,517 contract with local firm SC Joseph was to cover work at the centre’s former Shopmobility unit, which if left undone could result in higher costs down the line.

The council also said that for over a year now it has made no money from the closed Wilko shop, previously the centre’s largest until the homeware retailer went into administration in August last year.

The 17,000-square-foot Maylord branch remains vacant, with the Wilko signage still in place.

The drawn-out process of winding up the company is now “nearing a close within the next six months”, the council said.

A spokesperson said the council was “pursuing discussions with parties interested in the unit” but that its previous tenant remained “responsible for ongoing operational costs such as business rates”.

Commercial estate agents Wright Silverwood currently advertise the unit at a yearly rent of £150,000, along with six other Maylord Orchards units.

The shopping centre was bought by the previous administration of Herefordshire Council for over £4 million in 2020, with part of it then earmarked for a new library and learning centre for the city.

But last year the incoming Conservative-led administration switched the venue for this to the city’s Shire Hall, where conversion work is now under way, saying at the time it believed Maylord Orchards was in a strong commercial position.

One consequence of this work is that the public CCTV control room, currently in an extension to Shire Hall earmarked for demolition, will now be merged with the control room at Maylord Orchards.
Mike Truelove, chief executive of Hereford Business Improvement District which represents the city’s retail and hospitality sector, said he was “delighted” the council were investing in the upkeep of Maylord, adding that the centre as a whole “is self-funding and does not use council or public money to fund it”.
He said a year-round programme of events at the centre “has added a new lease of life, with units being let”, adding there has been “a distinct upturn in footfall since the end of summer, which combined with a commercial strategy and investment means we feel Maylord will prosper”.