Council accused of lacking innovation
AN opposition councillor has accused regeneration chiefs of “negligence” and needing to ‘think outside the box’ to help revitalise Accrington town centre.
Conservative Josh Allen has questioned whether the ruling Labour group has the ideas to transform the town, and says several suggestions put forward by him and his party have not been considered.
He has accused the council of too much focus on heritage, and says a ‘Box City’ shipping container-based retail solution like they have in London would be an “unbelievable” innovation.
But council leader Miles Parkinson rejected accusations his group’s members did not have the required background in business.
Coun Allen said: “I’ve put several ideas to the council, but been met with ignorance because they don’t want to try outside-the-box thinking. It’s a shame really - under this council Accrington has seen a massive downturn.
“You can blame it on online shopping or differences in shopping, but I put it down to negligence and lack of ideas. Unfortunately if you look at the councillors in the controlling group cabinet, not many have had experience in anything about urban planning. The only councillor I’m aware of is Andrew Clegg.”
Coun Allen believes Accrington has the potential to be an ‘innovative market town’.
“We have got a good opportunity to do something different,” he said.
“A vast world of history with the [Accrington] Pals, and I don’t think we are utilising them enough compared with places like Blackburn, Burnley, Bury. Unfortunately, the council don’t want to try that.
“They keep banging the drum that it’s been neglected by government. They don’t want to listen.
“The way forward would be something like a Box City, like in London. I’ve pushed that for ages. I think that would be unbelievable for Accrington. They put big retailers like Next and Primark and literally given them only ordering stations in a market place.
“It’s worked fantastically in London. A horrible piece of land is now a multi-million pound investment opportunity. The container shops are worth more than the shops that are actually buildings. Box City would revitalise the town completely.”
In response Coun Parkinson said there are “a cross-section” of backgrounds in the Labour group’s councillors, adding: “Quite a few are either self employed or have their own businesses.”
He said Accrington was going through a “transition” which has speeded up because of a decreasing population and online shopping habits, but said you also needed to take the borough’s outlying townships into consideration.
“We have seen the changes in our outer towns,” said Coun Parkinson.
“If you go back 10, 15, 20 years, the outer towns didn’t have their supermarkets and you came into Accrington to do your shop.
“We are losing a third of footfall, which now doesn’t need to do its weekly shop in Accrington. In Accrington what you have is probably an over-capacity of retail.
“The best way forward for us is independent traders because the national chains can see that footfall not being there, so they’re removing themselves.”
The leader said what was needed was more aspirational shopping boosted by the independent sector, with food outlets, and cocktail bars supported by commercial and residential development, as well as leisure.
“We need to make sure when people come to the town they are actually seeing premises being used and not boarded up.
“I went into the Arcade, which is a fantastic historic building - but most of the businesses have gone from there.”