Not so Mellow Yellow…..Wrapid High Street sites
We are reading a great deal these days about the high street, lack of sales, night time binge drinking, security/safety issues, congestion charges; lack of parking and the list goes on….
Having attended recent local authority meetings, senior level discussions with Transport for London and meetings with various Property Search Companies in Leeds and Manchester a disappointing message comes through….there is no long term strategy and no joined up thinking in regards to the health of our high streets. Even more disappointing is the fact that no one has considered looking at the effect of all the policies against the consumers need to park and thus to shop or eat or visit the much needed chemist. All we read about is the down turn is due to the internet or the down turn in consumer spending and the economy. The community as a whole and their needs are not really understood.
Let us consider any high street in any district of our major cities or small towns in the UK, what we find is a high street that has double yellow lines on it’s main thorough fare and it’s side streets, we have a growth of no parking zones (permit holders only) due to local residence demands to park their second car on or in front of their home, we have a huge growth in parking meters being installed (sadly at £1 for 20 minutes) or pay by phone parking schemes. On top of this the quick free parking that used to exist at the local station is now controlled and prices have risen since 2005 by 500%, certainly this is the case from York to St Albans to Brighton and across the UK.
The local hotels have also put up barriers or controls the local residence parking…get the picture? So what we have is a ‘situation’ here. That situation has been created by local and government policies that do not act strategically, by alienating the car, the consumer has been driven (excuse the pun) away from the high street. This in turn creates a lack of high street traffic and therefore a lack of sales, causing the likes of the regional Boots, WH Smiths and necessary commodity brands (local butcher, chemist, banks, dry cleaners) to close down in our local high streets. This then is reflected in a drop in rateable values, collections of VAT, and sales taxed related income for town councils. This drives the councils to create new income streams, so they inflict car parking policies to drive income from parking permits, traffic related parking tickets via the double yellow line and the infamous parking meter charge. This is happening also at hospitals, Universities and of course in Supermarkets and on the motorways re parking at Welcome Break type operations….Considered an easy target and a easy income stream. This in turn shuts off consumers from the high street as it is no longer as convenient to shop, the type of shops become non core or secondary brands (down market) and a downward spiral begins. In effect we drive farther to shopping malls and mega stores so we can load up our wares!
So let us take a typical Mum, she arguably needs to park close to the shops to jump out of the car collect the dry cleaning or pick up the prescription from the local chemist, often directly outside as little Jonny ,the son, is in the car seat fast asleep. This she can no longer do.
Or lets look at the 40+ year old couple who decide to go out to dinner or lunch (by the way 40-60 year old market is the fastest growing), they still have the same issues, the cost or convenience to park is restrictive, meters often charge for 18 hours a day, besides the local Indian or Italian is now a take away to accommodate the Yates late night trade, so actually theirs no where decent on the high street left to eat anyway. The youth will train it in or car pool so the intimidation factor is high from 7pm-1am; just go to York on a Thursday night and find a pub, bar or restaurant that does not have a doorman (polite 2009 speak for bouncer) at their entrances, what does that tell you?
Students suffer too, local high streets do have the right shops to fit their needs either, due to the yellow mellow policies!
So we have this ‘situation’ the car is black listed, the taxable income for towns and cities is shrinking, the smaller towns get empty shops, the high street deteriorates and the consumers go to out of town for shopping, eat at home or shop via the internet. Interestingly the local village or small out of or off town gastro pubs are doing a roaring and rural trade…not due I would argue to the economy but due to ease of parking… but we have to drive there…
Lets not debate pollution issues, but really, where is the common sense…
Can you find a successful local cinema operating on a high street? Can you find a high street where the local paper is not discussing Boots/WHSmith or the local chemist closing?. Is this totally due to consumer demand or changing shopping habits…absolutely to a certain extent but the car and our love affair with the freedom it delivers or should deliver needs to be put into local town planning policies? Perhaps sacrificing rent or rates on a high street location in consideration of free 30 minute parking is worth considering. Perhaps having a planning policy that says we need a mix of local, branded retail outlets and tax breaks for cinemas and theatres. Perhaps even the local Italian is important to the community? A high street gym or health club is finding it hard to make ends meet due to restrictive parking policies. These businesses create footfall and support the high street infrastructure.
I will leave you with this one thought. ‘Is not the heart of a high street and it’s mix of businesses something to consider in planning a policy and thus the consideration of parking to create a healthy high street worth an overall policy change?
So as we grow older, we mellow but we face the dreaded yellow lines of authority…. If you have a view, contact me …Stephen@wrapid.com
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5 comments:
Stephen,
you have a point, urban planners can't be looking at things strategically. And as those big name shops close on the high street, Woolworths for example, what a gap they leave.Wonder will current recession/depression + climate change reshape shopping habits, e.g. bring back local produce and a community dimension to shopping?
I see local returning and of course a growth of internet purchase and delivery, local farms and farm shops already doing this re meat/saugages and cheses direct delivery to homes.
Wine boys like Laithwaites big on home shopping delivery...
I agree with everything you say. Where I live in Croydon the high street is beginning to resemble those I see 'up north' on my regular travels: namely boarded up shops and desolate precincts. Weirdly, though, and you might be able to answer this, the good old British 'caff' seems to survive. If you go to St George's Walk in Croydon you will find all the shops boarded up EXCEPT for the caffs. My all-time favourite, Sergio's Continental Bar and Diner is still doing well during the week as is Piccolino's (formerly Panino Bar) at the other end. The problems you allude to in your blog are very real: the internet is designed, sadly, to keep people locked away in their homes where they can indulge in 'internet shopping' or download movies. The supermarkets are selling cheap booze and people CAN smoke in their own living rooms. Throw in a liberal sprinking of virtual reality gaming (I"m thinking Nintendo Wii – hey, who needs to visit the gym when you've got Wii Fit?) and you can see a general move towards 'staying in', which is extremely unhealthy. What bugs me is that the American obesity problem has hit our shores and yet, oddly, everything seems designed to keep us from unlocking our front doors. I don't know the answer to the problem, but it would be good to see the return of 'the local'. We read about locality and provenance in food and now cask ale (the only growth sector in the drinks industry at present) is promoting the same credentials and pubs and clubs are being advised, rightly, that offering cask ale will give them a unique selling point. Who in their right mind would visit a pub for a pint of Foster's at £3 when they can buy a case of the stuff for a tenner in Sainsbury's? However, visit the pub for a pint of Everard's Sunshine, Moorhouse's Blond Witch or Dark Star's Hophead and suddenly you've got a reason to go out. THAT is what is needed here. People need a reason to get off their sorry butts and out in to the fresh air where they can drink some fresh coffee (but hopefully not in a Costa or any of the other chains) or where they can visit an independent artisan bakery, drink some locally brewed ale and so on. Which brings me back to the good old British caff, of which there are many. If they can survive then they must be doing something right – and that is they are one of a kind and that's what people want uniqueness. Remember that whole shopping mall thing? How wherever in the world you go you stumble across the same old brands. I remember travelling to Calgary in North Western Canada a year or two ago and guess what I found? A Claire's Accessories store. Globalisation is the cause, of course, and that's why big brands like McDonald's are ubiquitous. People are bored and that's why they stay in – and yes, parking restrictions are a problem too. Check out http://teashopandcaff.blogspot.com
Actually, something else about my visit to Calgary in North Western Canada. While it could be argued that in town things are a little limp (and by that I mean that yes, there are people there but little in the way of a vibe), if you head out of town to the Calgary Farmer's Market you will find a huge aircraft hangar stuffed full of independent retailers. The place has a real buzz to it and next door somebody has made a real wise move and set up a huge and very inviting brew pub where guests can sample different brews all of which are brewed on-site. What is needed is more uniqueness, more locality and then people will open their front doors and venture out.
One last thing...on the smoking ban front I don't think it's as much of a problem as is being made out by various groups. Most of the people in business that I talk to say it's had little effect on their bottom lines and the general vibe is that retail outlets (pubs, restaurants and cafés) are far better environments now than they used to be as people no longer go home smelling like a winter bonfire. The bigger issue is the dominance of the supermarkets. Supermarkets out price the little guys, they are located in out of town areas and that leads to the collapse of the high street. In fact, out of town developments generally over the last two decades has been the biggest factor in the death of the high street. Personally, I think people want their high streets back and that it's down to the operators to do something special and make a difference.
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