Beales boost for city’s business
It was great to see the new department store Beales opening up in St John Street in Perth, in the old McEwens building.
When McEwens closed last year there were real concerns about the impact this would have on Perth’s reputation as a retail centre, and particularly one hosting a range of independent stores.
Beales taking up that site is extremely encouraging, and the retailer has already had a warm welcome from local shoppers. I know from conversations with other traders that they are looking forward to increased footfall at that end of the city centre, to the benefit of all the surrounding businesses.
This good news comes at a time when the theatre is about to reopen after its extensive refurbishment.
Having had the theatre closed for years has undoubtedly reduced footfall in the city centre, particularly in the evenings, and it can only be to the benefit of the night-time economy and Perth’s reputation as a cultural centre that we have this tremendous new facility serving the area.
These two developments are part of a whole range of exciting developments in and around Perth, where events such as the Hallowe’en festival and the forthcoming Christmas lights switch-on really putting the city on the map as a place to visit.
I remember last year chairing a meeting of city centre traders, along with my colleagues Liz Smith and Alexander Stewart, at which the mood was very downbeat about the future of Perth city centre.
It is great to see things turning around, and the credit for this must go at least partly to the new Conservative-led administration on Perth and Kinross Council.
Unlike the years of drift and decay under the SNP, we now have a council which is driving Perth forward, attracting businesses back to the city centre, and already we are seeing the benefits of that.
At a national level, we had confirmation from the SNP Government at Holyrood that they are going to support the bill to criminalise smacking of children. You do not have to be an advocate of smacking as a means of disciplining youngsters to see this as an unwarranted interference in family life.
On the back of the discredited‘Named Person’ policy, which even social workers described to the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee as “toxic”, this is just another example of the SNP promoting state interference in the private lives of individuals and their families.
I have now doubt that public reaction to this smacking ban will be just as hostile as it has been to the Named Person policy. Indeed, opinion surveys suggest that three out of four Scottish adults reject criminalisation of smacking.
When there is so much else to be put right in Scotland, not least the NHS which was the subject of yet another damning report from Audit Scotland just two weeks ago, one would have thought that the priorities of Nicola Sturgeon and her Government would be getting our public services right, rather than yet more divisive legislation.
The Scottish Conservatives will continue to stand up for family rights, and urge the SNP to focus on the day job, which after all is what they were elected to do. Shoppers outside Beales before the store’s opening on Thursday last week