Are we too lazy to save the High Street?
IS THERE a future for the High Street? I need to know because I am a market trader who runs a family business employing my wife and two sons, and my family will have to make a living for years to come. Families used to visit their local town to shop and go to the bank, but today the only businesses left on many High Streets are bars, restaurants, coffee houses and fast-food outlets. After coming out of National Service in 1956, I went into the wholesale grocery trade, calling on corner shops as a rep. But by the mid-Sixties the rot had started to set in with the advent of supermarkets, making corner shops untenable. I had recently married and markets were popular, so I tried my hand at ‘swag’ — selling cheap versions of general household goods. I soon moved into confectionery and I am still trading more than 50 years on. Why is the High Street in its death throes? Everyone blames online shopping, but I believe it is because we have bred a lazy society. There is an over-reliance on the car to go shopping. What can we do to regenerate the High Street? Many traditional shops will never return. DIY is a dying pastime, wool and handicrafts hold no interest for the young, and greengrocers and butchers have been affected by the increase in eating out. The only shops that are thriving are those in the retail parks on the periphery of every town and city, where parking is free. In my town I have appealed for more park-and-ride bus services and a twohour reduced-rate parking charge aimed at shoppers, but to no avail. Business rates must be reduced and independent shops encouraged, with concessionary rents for the first three years. And, of course, every town centre should have a market!
PETER WHILDE, Draycott, Derbys.