Capital & Regional chief executive Martin Barber has stepped down from the company he co-founded 30 years ago. Amid rumours of a boardroom rift after the share price slumped 70 per cent in just under a year, the company has brought in Hugh Scott-Barrett as Barber's replacement.

German fashion and lifestyle brand Gerry Weber has become the latest retailer to sign up for Grosvenor and USS's 450,000-sq ft Grand Arcade development in Cambridge ahead of its opening on March 27.

Multi Development has let two of the MSUs at its £360m SouthGate development in Bath to Swedish fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz and Boots. The 400,000-sq ft regeneration scheme is being developed jointly with Morley.

The retailer line-up for the Eagles Meadow shopping centre in Wrexham has been boosted with five new signings. Wilson Bowden Developments' 400,000-sq ft shopping and leisure scheme is now 75 per cent let ahead of its October 2008 opening.

Land Securities has submitted a planning application for the £100m redevelopment of the St John's Centre, Liverpool's largest covered shopping centre. The proposed extension will increase its overall size from 360,000 to 480,000 sq ft.

Westfield has signed six retailers from the Arcadia Group for its £340m Bradford development. Topshop/Topman, Evans, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Wallis and Miss Selfridge will take 43,341 sq ft in the new centre which is being anchored by Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council has given the go ahead for a 100,000- sq ft extension to the Moorfield Group's Ridings shopping centre. The three-storey scheme will extend the mall onto a site between Rodney Yard and the existing service yard entrance.

Multi Development launched its first UK retail-led mixed-use scheme this month when it opened the long-awaited for Victoria Square in Belfast on March 6.

What a way to start a conference. The worst financial crisis for 60 years; America said to be in recession. Cheap oil, cheap food, cheap commodities gone; real inflation in the UK around 9 per cent; and, according to Asda, a drop in consumer disposable income of 3.5 per cent - £5 less a week to spend.

Scottish retailer Bite is embarking on plans to expand south of the border, having established itself as a recognised brand in the active sports sector in Scotland.

I recently spent a day listening to a series of presentations at a Market Research Society seminar, 'The Future of Geodemographics'. Those who read this column will doubtless recall me banging on about this subject. To recap, our thesis is that a shopping centre's catchment is inherently unstable and that a significant amount of a marketer's energy and resources should be devoted to sustaining or improving the number of shoppers using the centre. The effectiveness of the marketing strategy to achieve this will be determined by the depth of understanding of the target shoppers.

The South-West has a long and established tradition of taking pride in its local produce. Home of the Soil Association and instrumental in the growth of the organic food movement, the combination of rich arable land and fruits of the sea gives these counties a distinct head start in the rich pickings from their market gardens.

This year's Shopping Centre Managers' conference seemed better than ever, and it has benefited from the move to the ever-expanding Manchester Central venue.

The new BCSC president, Martyn Chase, has taken over an organisation which finds itself at something of a crossroads. Externally, the shopping centre industry will deliver more new space than ever before this year - 14 schemes spread across the country are due for completion with a combined value of more than £4bn, but this coincides with a challenging investment and occupational market. Internally the BCSC's 25th anniversary is provoking a degree of soul-searching about the way forward.

A continuous flow of customers entering a shopping centre combined with the smooth ceramic and terrazzo flooring associated with shopping malls increases the chance of customers slipping within a busy retail environment, particularly on wet days.

After years of wrangling and counter-wrangling in Parliament, the Corporate Manslaughter Act finally becomes law on April 6 this year.

A natural ventilation system, concealed behind giant floating sails, looks set to reduce the emissions normally associated with air-conditioning down to virtually zero at Glasgow's new Silverburn shopping centre.

The SCEPTRE Awards, rewarding the best practice and the best people in the UK's shopping centre industry, are now bigger and better than ever, and the deadline is fast approaching.

All eight cars parks at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent are to receive Park Mark accreditation from the British Parking Association for their high safety standards.

The SFX Parking Post is a new aid to help protect parking spaces that are reserved by regulation for disabled drivers, parents with children or other special needs groups, including the seven-day business user.

Makers Parking, the car park refurbishment division of Makers UK, has been sold by its parent company, Keller Group, to management.

The St Enoch Centre in Glasgow has announced plans for a major refurbishment of its car parking facilities as part of the scheme's £100m transformation.

The Light in Leeds has been awarded the Park Mark Safer Parking Award for the third consecutive year.

The car park is a major financial asset at any shopping centre and as such the landlord should be continually striving to improve its financial productivity.

The Metric Group's latest recruit, Brian Nelson, has been appointed to the role of parking services manager following the parking equipment manufacturer's decision to enter into the parking management arena.

Parkex International is the event of the year for the parking industry and the 2008 conference brings 'Raising the Standards' and sharing best practice in parking and traffic management to the forum.

Ensuring your customers are relaxed when they embark on a Saturday afternoon shopping trip is vital to ensuring they want to return again to your shopping centre. Part of creating that stress-free experience is the knowledge that their vehicle is parked safely on site.

For most retail parks in the UK, on-site management is limited to employing a car park operator to look after the surface car park.

Shopping centres provide a number of key challenges in designing an efficient car park that will be well received by the shopping public.

The Facilities Show 2008 provides a networking arena for the retail and shopping centre industry to meet thousands of key representatives within the FM industry.

? Bristol

PAPA JOHN'S has appointed ALAN MASON as director of property. He has previously held senior roles with a number of high-profile companies including: Rileys, Pizza Hut, Luminar Leisure and Allied Domecq.

Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley made his first public appearance following his resignation this month at the launch of Victoria Square, Belfast.

Blueprint Projects, in conjunction with Shopping Centre, gave one lucky centre the chance to win a retail merchandise unit (RMU) with free delivery and installation for a year - a prize worth around £8,000. And the lucky winner, announced at the BCSC shopping centre management conference in Manchester earlier this month, is Suzanne Green, centre manager of the Corner House leisure and entertainment complex in Nottingham.