20/04/2017 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening, and welcome to the late Look North.

Thousands more shoppers in Leeds, but business isn't booming

for all stores in the city's new retail centre.

The Harrogate Flower Show gets underway, with visitors asked

It's a fairly cloudy story over the next few days. But high pressure is

in charge. I will have the full forecast shortly.

Tonight, is Yorkshire's newest flagship shopping centre failing

It's six months since Victoria Gate opened in Leeds.

It was dubbed the Knightsbridge of the North.

But although the number of shoppers in the city centre

has increased by 3%, there are signs that trade for some

outlets in the development hasn't been as brisk as hoped.

Here's our Business Correspondent, Danni Hewson.

Thursday morning, and things are pretty quiet.

But Victoria Gate has always been about quality, not quantity.

And management insist they are happy with footfall.

We feel very comfortable with the customer numbers that we're

Typically we have a higher spend and slightly lower volume

of customers to what you'd find in a typical shopping centre.

That's totally to be expected, given the line-up and mix

Probe a little, and it's clear not all shops are making the kind

Now the novelty has worn off, even high-end retailers are facing

Competition from online, yes, but also rising inflation eating

I don't know, I feel like we've already got shops we can use,

You know, because obviously it's big, and obviously you can go

Sometimes you just look in to see if there's

Because obviously that's what we do nowadays.

It's really nice to go there, but I really don't

There's not much retailers can do about the cash in your wallet.

But shoppers can be tempted from their couches

By the summer, the rooftops of Victoria Gate will be home

to D London's third and fourth Leeds hotspot.

Both a Japanese eatery and a New York bar.

Leeds has got a very young scene, it's got a very music scene.

It's got a big food and beverage offer now inside Leeds,

which thousands upon thousands of people coming to Leeds every

As for online shopping, most brands have a digital presence.

Shops have become primarily a window to be dressed to impress.

Bricks and mortar retailers, the key focus they've got to look

at is making sure that customers get something extra when they

You can't just have transactional retail any more, where it's pick

You know, every single sector from luxury to high street

really needs to focus on what they are doing in stores

to make their customer connect with the brand and to make them keep

wanting to come back to the high street.

Catherine Shuttleworth is a retail analyst from Leeds.

I asked her why some of the stores could be struggling.

Well, it's a brand-new centre, it's only been going for six months.

And some of these stores in this centre are brand-new.

Not just to Leeds, but to a lot of shoppers in the region.

So I think it'll take them a bit of time to find their feet.

And also, since Christmas we've been tightening our belts financially.

Not spending quite as much on luxuries and the things

And these are the sort of stores that suffer straightaway when times

As interest rates have got a bit higher, a lot of people have found

But is this not a blow to the centre, then?

There's been so much investment there, hasn't there?

There's still developments upstairs on the roof

It is a kind of iconic centre in the city, and it's

So I don't think there will be panic yet, but there'll be a little bit

of unsettled feeling that it's perhaps not taken off as quickly

Yes, a 3% increase in the number of shoppers.

Should that not be higher, considering some big names have

I think it's difficult to judge it, because it opened just before

Christmas, which is traditionally a time when we're all

out on the high street and we are spending more

So the high street in general has seen about a 1.3% increase

And it does show that things are slowing down a little bit.

I think we need to give this centre about a year or two before we can

How much is political uncertainty a factor, do you think?

I think it's a huge factor at the moment in terms

We're all a little bit concerned about what's going to happen over

That's been exacerbated this week by the announcement

And we're just being really careful about what we spend

We want value, whether we're spending ?500 or ?5.

Do you think Leeds has now reached a limit in terms of new shops

Leeds is one of the premier retail centres in the UK,

I think it's fantastic we've got these different centres.

We've got Trinity, we've got the market, we've got Briggate.

It's always difficult to say, isn't it, whether we've got too much.

Because the retail space keeps growing and people

But there will be a point where we've kind of topped out.

I don't think we are quite there yet.

The Barnsley East MP Michael Dugher has said he's quitting Parliament.

He won the seat for Labour in 2010, but was sacked

from the Shadow Cabinet by Jeremy Corbyn last year.

He's said he wants to "make a difference in life

Meanwhile, the former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls,

who lost his seat in 2015, has confirmed he is not standing

Mr Balls hasn't ruled out contesting a seat elsewhere.

Three people have been arrested in Leeds on suspicion

of intimidating jurors during a trial.

In February, three men were jailed for killing 88-year-old Betty Laird

They deliberately drove into the car she was travelling

in so they could make fake compensation claims.

During the trial, jurors reported being offered bribes.

Today two men and a 15-year-old girl were arrested in Beeston

and Harehills on suspicion of conspiracy to intimidate jurors

The Proms - one of the biggest music events in the world,

They'll travel to Hull this summer, leaving London

Three open-air concerts are being held in July.

It's part of the city's UK Capital of Culture programme.

Thousands of people have been heading to North Yorkshire

for the first day of the Harrogate Spring Flower Show.

They've been treated to eye-popping displays of the best blooms

If there's a plant you fancy, chances are you'll find it there.

There's only one phrase for it - blooming marvellous.

The Harrogate Spring Flower Show really cocks a snook at the winter

with a gorgeous celebration of what's to come on the gardening

And, especially for this show, these amazing floral costumes,

Some of them take about three months to make.

I had to do this one in a hurry because this is actually meant

And I was actually sort of doing the statements at about 4pm

Yes, that was sort of popped in the suitcase and came.

Incredible what months of work can achieve.

This was one of the show garden plots last week.

It is going to be a memorial garden for the Royal Logistics Corps,

And the Military Wives Choir was on hand to fill this

# That leaves your soul to breathe #.

Seeing it come to life has been fantastic.

We'll have to deconstruct and then reconstruct it on camp

for the soldiers and their families for years to come.

It's been a great collaborative effort.

And I'm really pleased with the result.

To have won gold and Best in Show is just outstanding.

It's remarkable what you can do with plants.

The floristry displays are inspiring.

Thousands have enjoyed them today, and will

Sheffield swimmer Max Litchfield has broken a British record.

The 22-year-old won the 400m individual medley

at the British Swimming Championship this evening in his home

His time guarantees him a place at this summer's

First thing is first, is your microphone working?! You hearing me

loud and clear? Technical problems, live telly, that's why we love it!

High-pressure is in charge of the next few days. It is good if you

will be pretty cloudy. We set the will be pretty cloudy. We set the

scene for tomorrow in the same way. Overnight, a dry picture for most of

us. Cloud gets a bit thicker in northern and western parts, could

squeeze out a bit of light rain and drizzle on higher ground maybe. Look

at the temperatures, overnight lows, 8-9dC. We will not have to worry

about frost tomorrow morning. Early-morning brightness across

parts of East and north Yorkshire, some sunshine. Further west, thicker

cloud, maybe some light rain or drizzle on higher ground on the

Pennines. Temperatures tomorrow, look at this, 14 or 15 Celsius. That

will feel pleasant if you are out and about. You can see some gaps

where we could see some drizzle in the often noon, and a westerly

breeze. We have high pressure in charge, and if we come to the

pressure chart, alas, here is the high pressure. In the weekend,

Saturday is looking OK. Introducing thicker cloud and maybe some light

rain and drizzle across western parts. But we noticed this cold air

flooding down from the north later this week. We could see some wintry

showers, yes, I said wintry showers. I

week for much of the UK and for more about that and the UK outlook, Helen

Willetts. The sunshine make such a difference

this time of year, only 12 or so degrees under the cloud today but 19

in eastern Scotland not far away from St Andrews. Also in north-east

England, where we had the majority of the decent sunshine. Even under

cloud it was dry for the most part. We have this week whether forgiving

showers in the south. This weather front starting to pep up in the

North, it'll change the feel of the weather for all of us in the coming

36 hours. Through the night very little changes, cloud comes and

goes, there will be missed a shallow fog south of the M4. Possibly the

odd pocket of ground frost here and there. You can see the rain