Councillors meet Glades Management

Councillors Sam Webber and Julie Ireland recently met with senior management at The Glades Shopping Centre and discussed a range of issues. These included protecting the right of way access from White Hart Slip to Queens Gardens, after residents raised this directly with us. This will be maintained and has been closed a few times recently for maintenance work or when contractors have been working overnight for security reasons. We will now be informed in advance of any future closures and they will be kept to a minimum.

Other issues included:

- Footfall is now back to pre-pandemic levels with barely 2% variation each week. 16.5 million visitors per year.
- Relatively few empty retail units - around 10 currently empty out of 130, with some new names moving in shortly
- Staff training undertaken for all Glades staff on autism and dementia awareness so support can be given to those who need it 
- New developments ahead in 2026 when the Debenhams store is converted into 3 separate units. The businesses moving into these new units have not been announced yet but we will share as soon as we know.