Lack of handy parking is reason why town is dying
ON WHAT was once a main road through Loughborough linking north London and Carlisle lies our High Street.
Sadly no more. The shops on it are dying because very few people now understand where it is. My son and my wife who run Brookes Butchers, the only surviving butchers in the town centre, found during a recent campaign to increase sales, that a significant number of people they talked to didn’t know where the High Street is, let alone Brookes Butchers.
Recent changes to the traffic system, pedestrianisation, No Access signage, and over zealous traffic wardens have reduced it to a “nothing street” with shops closed down, to let or boarded up. How sad is that? It is dead!! Contrast that with a small town just 13 miles up the road called Ashby De La Zouch where their equivalent of our High Street, Market Street, is vibrant and is completely opposite to our High Street.
Why is this you ask? My view is that it is because you can park either side of the road, get out and do your banking, shopping etc and get back into your car in 10 minutes. Very much like going online and doing internet shopping but with the added personal touch to go with it where you can talk through the product, touch it and feel it before buying. What a great advantage over the internet.
This is why our town centre is dying. People don’t want to park, walk 10 minutes each way from where they parked, often carrying heavy shopping bags. It has already been reduced to a coffee shop town centre with little else to bring in shoppers so come on council, wake up and see what you are doing to our town centre and take action before it is too late.
Martin Widman