I blogged last week about a story I had heard that Capital Shopping Centre’s had effectively put on hold their plans for an extension to the Victoria Centre.

And then came to me an official statement from CSC which is in direct contradiction to that ‘story’. I can do no better than to ‘cut and paste’ from the press release…

…We are proud to confirm that we have a £1bn ten-year pipeline of projects, including exciting plans for major extensions at five of our centres, including Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh.

Our investment plans are grounded on the belief that Nottingham is a great city and has the potential to be even better. CSC has been at the heart of Nottingham for over forty years and we remain passionate and committed to driving the city back up the retail rankings.

We feel it is important to take a city wide approach when devising our development plans, and not view our shopping centres in isolation.

To achieve this, we are actively engaging with the Council to discuss plans that would see both the Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh, the city centre and the public realm much improved as part of a wider strategy to bring more people to the city. CSC will focus upon plans for its centres and will work with the council to develop plans for the rest of the city centre and public areas.

We are currently developing plans to upgrade the two shopping destinations, bringing new brands, restaurants and leisure spaces to re-establish Nottingham’s status as the top shopping destination in the Midlands. Our plans will ensure that each shopping centre has a distinct and complementary identity playing to its inherent strengths.

We will work with our retailers, our shoppers, local residents and the Council to ensure our plans support improvements in the heart of the city centre, helping securing a new café-style culture and bustling squares and streets.

CSC will only bring forward viable and deliverable plans based on bringing the right shops in the right spaces.

So, where does the truth lie in this story. Ten years is quite a long time! Viable and deliverable plans offers an ability to blame external factors. But upgrading sounds goo. Cafe culture sounds good. Inherent strengths in Broadmarsh equals Poundland (not so good).

So… when does work start?