Scottish Daily Mail

FAKE STORE-FRONTS IN HIGH ST DEVASTATED BY WEB SHOPPING

AND HERE’S AMAZON’S WAREHOUSE ... 5 MILES FROM THE SHOPS IT’S HELPED TO DESTROY

- By Tom Payne

AT first glance it looks like a string of thriving businesses – but a closer look reveals the sorry truth of Swansea’s streets.

The council has resorted to installing fake shop-fronts to make its empty premises look smarter.

one is designed to look like an Apple store, while others are mocked up like bridal boutiques or supermarke­ts. A fifth of the city’s shops were empty and unused at the latest count in october.

Meanwhile, on the main road into Swansea, drivers’ views are dominated by a colossal landmark – the cavernous warehouse where hundreds of workers slog through 11-hour days to keep Amazon going. The site covers the area of ten football pitches, meaning staff must walk up to ten miles a day picking products from endless rows of shelves.

When the site opened in 2008 politician­s said it would be a shot in the arm for the ailing economy of South Wales.

A decade later, however, and the mood has shifted against the online giant, with its tiny tax bill turning optimism into anger. Swansea residents yesterday said the unstoppabl­e rise of internet shopping had condemned their once-thriving city centre to a miserable death.

Scores of businesses have been driven to the wall by a toxic combinatio­n of high rates and rents and cut-throat competi- tion from the internet. one statistic starkly illustrate­s why many local firms claim Amazon, which started as a bookseller, is operating at an unfair advantage.

It pays business rates for its Swansea warehouse based on a valuation of just £27 a square metre. The Waterstone­s bookshop in the city itself is assessed at £600 a square metre – 22 times more – according to real estate adviser Altus Group.

Georgia Herbert, 25, has run the Crepe Vine cafe in the city centre since 2009. The business enjoyed years of good trading before shoppers fled the high street.

‘There’s no reason to come to Swansea any more,’ said Miss Herbert. ‘Anyone on the city council with an ounce of common sense can see that.

‘Business rates are way too high and our business is more than struggling. For the past two to three years we’ve been making a loss when we used to be having sizeable profits.

‘In that time about five businesses have shut within 300 yards. It’s devastatin­g.

‘online purchasing is destroying the economy of cities like Swansea. So many people are losing jobs at places like House of Fraser and Debenhams, whereas companies like Amazon, which pay low wages on single-hour contracts, are thriving.

‘Amazon should be paying tax just as we pay our rates. The fact they don’t is a joke.’ Her father Steven Herbert said: ‘Swansea is a ghetto now. In the day, it’s full of drug addicts and yobs in grey hoodies. It’s incredibly sad.’ Robert Francis-Davies, a businessma­n and former mayor, said: ‘It breaks my heart. There needs to be an incentive to get trading back into the city centre.

‘The situation is bad but it’s no worse than any other city. There just aren’t as many people on the high street as there used to be. We’ve got to get life back into the town. Amazon has created employment, but it’s low-paid wages and a lot of single hour contracts.

‘We need quality, profession­al jobs in the city. I wish Amazon would pay some tax.’

Juliet Luporini, who is chairman of the Swansea Business Improvemen­t District, and former manager of the Kardomah Cafe, a favourite haunt of the

‘Drug addicts and yobs in grey hoodies’

poet Dylan Thomas, said: ‘Times have been hard. Out-of-town shopping centres and big companies like Amazon have really knocked us.

‘We’re working desperatel­y to make sure that local business see Swansea city centre as an attractive place to set up shop, which I think we’re doing very well.

‘Amazon should pay their tax. Yes they’re employing a lot of locals here in Swansea, which is great, but they need to being paying their tax as we do our business rates.’

One shopper, who asked not to be named, described the shopping experience in Swansea as a joke, adding: ‘This is supposed to be the second city of Wales but a better descriptio­n would be secondrate. The city has been left to wither.

‘Today it is a sad mix of coffee shops, bargain outlets, charity shops and bakeries. The idea of attracting a John Lewis like the one in Cardiff is a distant dream.’

The Amazon site employs around 1,500 people full-time, with extra seasonal workers at Christmas.

According to a report in The Observer, agency workers at the distributi­on centre are paid just 19p over the minimum wage and work 11-hour shifts.

 ??  ?? Anger: Georgia Herbert outside her cafe, which struggles to make a profit Competitiv­e edge: The Amazon warehouse on the outskirts of Swansea covers the area of ten football pitches Cover-up: Fake shop-fronts disguise empty units in Swansea
Anger: Georgia Herbert outside her cafe, which struggles to make a profit Competitiv­e edge: The Amazon warehouse on the outskirts of Swansea covers the area of ten football pitches Cover-up: Fake shop-fronts disguise empty units in Swansea
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