Help needed
Variety of shops are needed to halt decline
Shop owners and residents this week insisted more must be done to help Wishaw’s struggling Main Street.
After debate raged over whether or not a Costa Coffee should be welcomed into the town, the Wishaw Press hit the town centre to see the extent of the problems.
Last year, 53 vacant shops in the centre of the town were lying empty, amounting to 17 per cent of all units there.
With the second highest total of available units in North Lanarkshire – with 301 available – 53 were left empty.
Now shop owners are calling on the council to step in and save the struggling high street.
Jamie Bryden, from E-Cig-a-rus, believes they have to improve the town centre’s look even though the council spent £8million revamping the town centre.
He said: “Everywhere you look you can see estate agents and hairdressers. We need more variety.
“When you look at the street you can see it’s dying and it’s partly down to all the same types of shops.
“I think adding places like a Costa Coffee isn’t too big a problem because people know what they have with the cafes already here and will continue to use them.
“I don’t know what the council could do but it’s clear something needs to be done.”
However, staff at the Terrace Cafe told the Wishaw Press they were not concerned at a Costa coming to Wishaw.
One worker said: “We provide a different type of service to Costa and we have a lot of regulars coming in. “We’re not bothered at all by it.” In a letter to the Wishaw Press, enraged Elizabeth Seaton – who helps run the Wishaw Old Parish Church Cafe – believes smaller businesses are suffering.
She said: “I am a volunteer who, with others, helps in the running of Wishaw Old Parish Church Café which opens three days a week.
“It has run in the area for many years and serves to outreach into the