Town Centre Woes!

I cannot help but return briefly to the ongoing situation of my town and its development or lack of regarding the town centre.

An anecdotal story that on the night of the election where our PM was voted in(again)that 2am in the morning even though our small streets and town centre(which is enclosed so if you block off the few ways into the pedestrian shopping area there is no way in or out)and still at 2am as he was around to hear the result one man managed to walk right under the nose of security to his bank atm machine to get some money out of his account. Anecdotal maybe but I trust my source. I understand that the officer concerned was in trouble over the incident.

The local free newspaper also last week made the point that just perhaps if our PM steps down he'll maybe be seen more and do something for this town in what remains of time in Parliament.

Oh, of course there are national and world events that have to be dealt with but the paper argues as many residents and businesses have, perhaps if you want an MP that can be contacted reasonably easy and that can work for the community that voted them in, don't choose any that is the leader of a party because once they are Prime Minister, you've all but lost them.

At best they'll turn up for an opportunity where there is some tv coverage of them opening some building where they can give a speech that will be reported on local news and/or nationally so they can make a wider point with lots of spin.

Does anyone know when our PM steps down that he'll complete his term and work the remaining years helping in his constituency? And with a home in London and possibly elsewhere, various lecture tours and who knows what else, does anyone think he'll stay in the area afterwards? I'd like to be proved wrong but I think its a safe bet the answer will be "No!"

We had perfectly good MP that served the area before Tony won any seat or became PM and he continued for a good few years afterwards too but the boundaries were changed and suddenly this town was no longer in the previous MP's constituency. He wasn't happy. And since until his retirement, there were quite a few times stories appeared in the press and on the tv and radio that showed this to be the case.

I used to see the PM's agent around town quite often doing his shopping.

And now as my bank decides to move to the new part of the town centre retail area and take just about the last retail unit I can say that other than Argos and Tesco's every unit has been occupied by businesses that already existed in town and have just relocated. So practically no new business generated if at all.

I heard a report on the radio last week that the high street store Woolworth's may be taken over or sold off to a supermarket chain and many may close so just maybe unless rents are balanced against profits and performance, the Woolworth's branch that has been in this town from the start might close. There has been nothing to say that it will but if all other shops are suffering, in the older part of town...it has to be a possibility.

I do wherever possible support my local shops but as practically all the food is in the new part of town, the new area of town and Tesco's get my custom. And for ages they have been about the only store that offer online delivery. I have now discovered that Sainsbury's and ASDA have an online service to my town so I may switch or share my ordering around a bit in the future.

Speaking of which the free sheet carries a story today that gives us an idea what a unit in the new part of the shopping area costs.

Someone wanted to open a designer clothes shop in this town but found that the rents were more than double of those available in Darlington. He'd looked at the new shopping area here and found that the new shops near Tesco's were £500 per week(so you can guess that the rental being paid by my bank, an opticians, a solicitors, the job centre and the like)must be paying somewhere around that figure(maybe more)

Shops in the older part of town(due for demolition...so why would you want to be in one of those?)were about half the price on a short term lease but still more costly than something offering double the floor space in Darlington. Adding on rates and council tax, you can imagine it was out of the question.

So he looked at the town of Richmond in Yorkshire that gets many visitors, is busy and also gets lots of tourists and even there the cost was only £170 per week.

Finally, he found a unit in Darlington with two stories on a 3 month lease and close to the busiest part of Darlington where all the big stores are and is a focal point of the retail area for less than even Richmond was charging.

Obviously, you are going to look for the lowest price that you can find to run a business and you could say that he was looking for something for nothing but it does tend to prove the silly prices that are being charged here and what is keeping away shoppers that could be spending their money and keeping local retailers in business and bringing much needed revenue into the town.

Perhaps if profits increased then the retailers would not mind their rents etc...going up as they'd have revenue to cover outlay but if profits are decreasing who is going to stick around until they are in too much debt to continue in business?

I have been thinking things over since writing the above and one does wonder just how low a retailer expects to get a retail unit and someone could say that as designer clothes are to sold and because someone most have faith that a profit can be made on what is a luxury item perhaps the prices of the units here were not as bad(in the older part of town)

I also quoted that units in the new area of town according to the newspaper report were £500 but a few people have said to me that units in the new part of town are set around £1,500 mark so we'll have to work between those figures but it might explain perhaps why national retailers, banks and solicitors have taken up most of the units that were available. There is a local optician located there, surely he's not paying such a price?

How could I forget to add this to my entry...

The Advertiser free newspaper had a story which as far as I am aware has not been mentioned on local tv and radio news(or perhaps I have just missed it)maybe because I do not buy any newspaper local or national.

But Darlington which is approx 7 miles from here is now also being wooed by Tesco's. And campaigners even in a town as popular and successful as Darlo are worried about the affect this store if allowed will have again on local retailers. Its not as if Darlington does not have enough supermarkets centrally and on the outskirts of the town as if my memory is correct there are branches of ASDA, Morrisons and Sainsbury's. There could even be a Co-op. I think that there is also a Lidell's and possibly an Aldi but my argument is that it is well served already. Much of the town centre has been changed already and more and more of it has been changed to how I remember it all the years that I used to visit and it has become practically traffic free and even public transport tends to drop you off quite a distance from shops(perhaps ok if you do not have much to buy or are not disabled)

There is a major development taking place bringing in many more businesses but it has again not been welcomed by all because the historic look of the town and the main feature known as High Row has been changed and so the character of the town as been altered too. I have mixed feelings as in on breath I like to keep some of our past but can see why some areas have to change and try to modernise.

Well, this newspaper reports that there are proposals for a development with 130 flats, a superstore and a new town hall for the borough council.

This campaign is not just a case of local business worried that they will not be able to compete with Tesco's and the loss of trade but the campaigners are trying to get branches of national retailers based in Darlington to back the campaign because there business is likely to suffer as well. It could even result in the Covered in Market and out door market that has been in Darlington for 50+years might close if the proposal goes through.

The area where this may happen is also close to St Cuthbert's Church which dates from 1180 and will no doubt affect what is an historic and important building in its work and appearance.
The paper states that the Borough Council also admitted failing to disclose a rival supermarket's interest in plans for a town centre store.

The only good thing to come out of this now is that the information is in the public domain and that the council has launched the biggest public consultation exercise in its history over the issue.