Well that's the nail in the coffin for my town.

mr_goo

As some of you know I live in the New Forest in the not so lovely town of New Milton. Over the last dozen years the high street and the commercial road that runs off it have been in decline. None more so than during the recession. In the last few years the vacant shops have been taken over by charity shops, last count getting on for 10. None of which pay business rates, thereby increasing the pressure on the local council to increase the rates for those that qualify. Then we in last couple of years we have seen two tattoo/piercing parlours and the inevitable 'Vape' shop appear. Not to mention the proliferation of fast food outlets. Woolies now 99p store. Half a dozen 'house clearance' come junk shops that insist on displaying all their tatt on the pavement, from MFI furniture to fridge freezers. And don't get me started on the growing trend of 'A' frame signs that you have to dodge should you want to run the gauntlet of the high street.

But now! Yes! New Milton that growing carbuncle of the New Forest can proudly boast it's first Massage Parlour. Or Thai Therapy Centre as it claims to be. It can only go down from here. Next stop will be another parlour followed by the inevitable sex shop. And there doesn't appear to be anyone in local council that wants to turn it around.

What I am trying to highlight is that my town and many others are re-defining themselves to cater for what I would term. The lowest common denominator. At this rate the high street is dead to most unless you want a tattoo, eyebrow piercing, clog your arteries with a fat dripping kebab meat of questionable origin or to have your todger fettled.

Gotta get out of this place.

dodgy

It's not all bad, at least cycling is encouraged in your area.

morstar

Don't we get the high street we deserve?

The majority of those with a disposable income head to pre-fab shopping centres or buy online. Who is left for the High Street to serve other than those with restricted mobility and/or income (sweeping generalisation but!)?

Your above description could be applied to so many towns and Chorley 100% fitted that description only a couple of years ago. Just now, we have a feint glimmer of hope in Chorley as the High Street has undergone a huge makeover. This goes far beyond a bit of superficial titivating, they've definitely attempted to fundamentally change the geographical hot spots of the town, make it an attractive place to visit and to challenge some of the barriers to a successful High Street e.g. there's now lots of free, short stay parking close to the shops balanced with sensible traffic calming.

My historical frustration was that Chorley just tried to appeal to the standard high street retailers but then you just end up with a cr*p version of a big town and no soul. For Chorley, being only 10 miles from 4 sizeable towns and with Manchester and Liverpool both comfortably within an hour, this was pointless.

Will it work? Only time will tell but I hope it is a success, some real thought has gone into it.

pblakeney

Neatly sums up the Country as a whole.

sungod

no bookies or amusement arcades? sounds posh

RDW

Looks like they offer wax therapy on both legs for £25, something of a bargain and a useful service for cyclists:

http://www.saitarnthaitherapy.co.uk/treatments.html

Maybe the dodgy aspects are all in your filthy mind? Why not book in and report back if they offer to wax anything other than your legs? Don't forget to check if there's a discount for residents.

KnightOfTheLongTights

dodgy wrote:

It's not all bad, at least cycling is encouraged in your area.

Except for the quite aggressive campaigns by some locals against sportives and other cycling events?

MountainMonster

Every time I leave Cambridge to visit another town I am always disappointed, with exception of London. I remember just how isolated and alone Cambridge is in the grand scheme of things.

It's always a shame, but the shops closed down for a reason, and people want the cheap shops, so they are just filling market demands.

pblakeney

MountainMonster wrote:

It's always a shame, but the shops closed down for a reason, and people want the cheap shops, so they are just filling market demands.

I blame Wiggle.
Actually, I blame the internet shoppers (myself included) but someone had to say it.

MountainMonster

PBlakeney wrote:

MountainMonster wrote:

It's always a shame, but the shops closed down for a reason, and people want the cheap shops, so they are just filling market demands.

I blame Wiggle.
Actually, I blame the internet shoppers (myself included) but someone had to say it.

I'm right there with you, I buy most of my stuff online. I think the only times I go into town is when my wife wants to go window shopping, or I need to buy clothing items other than socks or underwear.

KnightOfTheLongTights

It's weird isn't it - I live in Twickenham, which is in one of the most affluent boroughs / districts in the country, Richmond upon Thames.
The town centre is OK, indeed has independent shops /cafes / baker / butcher / fishmonger / independent restaurants that a lot of small towns would be envious of.
Loads of hairdressers / barbers for some reason, the obligatory dozen estate agents, and a fair few pubs make up most of the rest.
There's also lots of charity shops, two tattoo parlours, two tanning salons, and possibly a massage place.
Even here businesses on the High St fail all the time - it's just that something does tend to come along and fill the premises, so that there aren't that many places empty for that long - just quite a high turnover....
So it's perfectly alright but not as thriving as you'd expect.
When I go 'home' to central Lancashire, I'm always shocked by the state of the town centres.

tangled_metal

Kendal is not too bad for shops but last Xmas eve it was dead. Year before it was full of shoppers right up to the last 10 minutes. At 5:30 and only then did most shops shut locking the doors on people still shopping. This past Xmas eve they were starting to close from 3! Sign of it happening in Kendal perhaps?

KnightOfTheLongTights

Tangled Metal wrote:

Kendal is not too bad for shops but last Xmas eve it was dead. Year before it was full of shoppers right up to the last 10 minutes. At 5:30 and only then did most shops shut locking the doors on people still shopping. This past Xmas eve they were starting to close from 3! Sign of it happening in Kendal perhaps?

Hopefully everyone had their shopping done and was in the pub.
Lovely place Kendal.

morstar

Xmas eve is a funny barometer as it all can depend upon what day of the week Christmas falls and how peoples time off works out in the run up.
Unusual to be busy much past lunchtime on Christmas eve most years but sometimes it keeps going right to the death.

mamba80

unless supermarkets and out of town shopping centres have to charge parking equal to that in a town plus charge £60 for over stays, who in their right mind would go into a town to shop?

Councils via central Government have shafted the town centre and tbh they ve it done to villages too, with the demise of the post office and the village pub, both have been stuffed by Government policy, pensions/benefits paid via bacs and the pub by allowing ultra cheap booze in those superstores.

bianchimoon

Weird place new Milton, when we stay in the new forest we sometimes go thought it when travelling down coast. Does look a bit of a carbuncle compared to Lymington, our local 'town' Northallerton won't even allow a McDonald's in, but is happy to fill with charity shops

dodgy

KnightOfTheLongTights wrote:

dodgy wrote:

It's not all bad, at least cycling is encouraged in your area.

Except for the quite aggressive campaigns by some locals against sportives and other cycling events?

Whoooooooosh.

mr_goo

Went to the local community association AGM on Sat morn. Currently New Milton has 14 charity shops. The pay very little in business rates if anything. Some of these shops sell brand new stuff (at lower prices) which is sold by the full rate paying businesses in the high st.
If the trend of charity shops and 'lowest common denominator shops' continue to spring up then the local business retail economy will die.

RideOnTime

Mr Goo wrote:

What I am trying to highlight is that my town and many others are re-defining themselves to cater for what I would term. The lowest common denominator. At this rate the high street is dead to most unless you want a tattoo, eyebrow piercing, clog your arteries with a fat dripping kebab meat of questionable origin or to have your todger fettled.

Gotta get out of this place.

Sounds great got any antique shops?

chris_bass

On the flip side of that, I live in a nice little semi rural town/village on the Warwickshire and West Midlands border. left the windows open yesterday, went out on the bike, came back 6 hours later and the local farmers had spread all manner of poo all over the fields and the whole place stank

morstar

Chris Bass wrote:

On the flip side of that, I live in a nice little semi rural town/village on the Warwickshire and West Midlands border. left the windows open yesterday, went out on the bike, came back 6 hours later and the local farmers had spread all manner of poo all over the fields and the whole place stank

Time to get even. Start pooing in a bucket at home. Next time it's warm and the farmers windows are open, empty the bucket/s contents all over your garden!

chris_bass

morstar wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

On the flip side of that, I live in a nice little semi rural town/village on the Warwickshire and West Midlands border. left the windows open yesterday, went out on the bike, came back 6 hours later and the local farmers had spread all manner of poo all over the fields and the whole place stank

Time to get even. Start pooing in a bucket at home. Next time it's warm and the farmers windows are open, empty the bucket/s contents all over your garden!

I like this idea, although I think if it descends into war they may have more ammunition seeing as they have cows on their side

seanoconn

Just poo on the floor, leave the windows open and let the stink drift out onto the fields, that'll teach em.

team47b

Still be nicer than New Milton

Frank the tank

My home town has been going "down the pan" for years.

When I was a teenager/early twenties the town was great, plenty of genuine independent businesses on the high street, a thriving market held every Friday,brill. We also had plenty of quality employment, Mining,clothing and engineering of all types.

Then the pits were closed and a lot of the engineering went, cheap imports put paid to a lot of the clothing industry. The only firm providing quality well paid jobs locally now is Rolls Royce. As the well paid employment disappeared the high street went down hill, we lost our "Woolies" a long time before the company went tits up. There was a £1 shop and even that closed. Then Tesco opened a large store and that really did put paid to the high street, we now have a high street much described by MrGoo namely charity shops,estate agents, pubs, fast food outlets,nail bars and barbers and NO weekly market.

My point is, yes, you need to patronnise local shops but a key factor is the towns wealth. The well paid jobs went and with it so did the high street.

Hucknall was basically a glorified pit village, when the pit closed two things stopped it sinking into total oblivion Rolls Royce and the fact it is right next to the M1 motorway, otherwise it would have gone the way of so many other pit towns in the north.

ballysmate

Frank the tank wrote:

My home town has been going "down the pan" for years.

When I was a teenager/early twenties the town was great, plenty of genuine independent businesses on the high street, a thriving market held every Friday,brill. We also had plenty of quality employment, Mining,clothing and engineering of all types.

Then the pits were closed and a lot of the engineering went, cheap imports put paid to a lot of the clothing industry. The only firm providing quality well paid jobs locally now is Rolls Royce. As the well paid employment disappeared the high street went down hill, we lost our "Woolies" a long time before the company went tits up. There was a £1 shop and even that closed. Then Tesco opened a large store and that really did put paid to the high street, we now have a high street much described by MrGoo namely charity shops,estate agents, pubs, fast food outlets,nail bars and barbers and NO weekly market.

My point is, yes, you need to patronnise local shops but a key factor is the towns wealth. The well paid jobs went and with it so did the high street.

Hucknall was basically a glorified pit village, when the pit closed two things stopped it sinking into total oblivion Rolls Royce and the fact it is right next to the M1 motorway, otherwise it would have gone the way of so many other pit towns in the north.

The similarities between Frank and myself are quite remarkable. Born in the same year and raised in a mining town. Although Frank seems to have lost his way politically.
Unlike Frank, I don't lament the closing of the local mines. I remember everything covered in thick grime. I remember people in the working men's clubs coughing and wheezing, some struggling to walk more than a few yards and even some on oxygen. No, I don't miss the mines at all, although I admit that they did help to support the local economy.
We also had a variety of shops, but at a price. For years, a local councillor blocked plans for M&S to open in the town. He had a string of ladies clothing shops. you see.
People bemoan the result of Tesco opening up and killing the high street, but shoppers vote with their purse. People seem to want independent shops with supermarket prices - it will never happen.
Our town was 'saved' like Hucknall by its proximity to the motorway, M6 and Toll Road. Remarkable, another similarity between me and Frank.

Frank the tank

@Ballysmate, do you think we were seperated at birth?

To be fair mate I don't bemoan the loss of the pits as such, just the prosperity they brought.

The point I was making (which wasn't lost on you) was the health of the high street depends very much on the prosperity of the town itself; unless the town is in an area of beauty like Bakewell or Matlock are for example in which case the high street is almost the main employer.

ballysmate

Used to work with a bloke from,I think, Belper. He was proud that his town had denied Tesco planning permission.
More bizarrely, he was equally firm in his stance against Wetherspoons.

ballysmate

Frank the tank wrote:

Ballysmate, do you think we were seperated at birth?

To be fair mate I don't bemoan the loss of the pits as such, just the prosperity they brought.

The point I was making (which wasn't lost on you) was the health of the high street depends very much on the prosperity of the town itself; unless the town is in an area of beauty like Bakewell or Matlock are for example in which case the high street is almost the main employer.

Don't know about that. My old man used to go down the pit in Staffordshire and I suppose it is possible that he surfaced in Notts for some over the side nookie.

tangled_metal

Last year or so there's been quite a few new charity shops opened up in Kendal. All seem to be one side of town that I rarely go to. They're all with good secondhand stuff too. Keswick Oxfam always had a good reputation as a place to buy.good secondhand outdoor kit. You could buy full down suits for high altitude expeds. I guess charity shops differ a lot depending on where they are. Areas with higher standard of living and they're usually full of better stock. They don't take over the high street but add to it.

mamba80

there is nothing wrong with healthy competition but shoppers at Tesco etc get free parking, Tesco can stock everything a multitude of small shops do and all in one place.

It would be easy to ensure any planning app, that the super store has to charge and enforce parking charges and those charges go back to the community.
Socialist nonsense? maybe, but why should the local council pick up the pieces of the collapsed town centre (it is not just former mining towns effected, its everywhere) via the tax payer whilst the superstore does nothing, i mean they dont even sign up to the living wage, so again the tax payer subsidises their staff wage costs.