I am responsible for the recent closure of high street shops...

A._Badger

What's pretty clear from this thread (and most local shop owners have known it for years) is that the real villains of the piece here are greedy local councils, using 'Green' excuses to ramp-up parking charges, thus deterring even more potential customers from the High St.

Add this to the swingeing rents and business charges and it's pretty obvious that, even ignoring the advantages of scale the supermarkets have, individual shops stand little chance of competing.

The irony is that when local shopping areas collapse and die, first in the queue of hand-wringers are usually the same local councillors who, at best, stood by and watched this happen and, at worst, actually caused the demise!

I should add, I am not a shopkeeper and have no connection with retail - I have just watched this happening for years, with growing frustration.

lostinrates

We have lots of large villages and small towns with free parking locally, even some with train stations, and the free parking has noticable impact. To demonstrate this I'd mention a local town which has lots of cheaper parking just off the small high street which is usually busy, but the high street is free, but pedestrianised from late morning till 4 pm. Its amazing how at four when the street is open the cars whip in and park. People have only saved 30p, but the feel good factor and minor increase in ease for many is really utilised. In my closer, smaller large villages we have a few lifestyle shops, independants and far fewer chains. Parking is free, and these villages with a face of individuality thrive ATM.

pamaris

A._Badger wrote: »

What's pretty clear from this thread (and most local shop owners have known it for years) is that the real villains of the piece here are greedy local councils, using 'Green' excuses to ramp-up parking charges, thus deterring even more potential customers from the High St.

Add this to the swingeing rents and business charges and it's pretty obvious that, even ignoring the advantages of scale the supermarkets have, individual shops stand little chance of competing.

The irony is that when local shopping areas collapse and die, first in the queue of hand-wringers are usually the same local councillors who, at best, stood by and watched this happen and, at worst, actually caused the demise!

I should add, I am not a shopkeeper and have no connection with retail - I have just watched this happening for years, with growing frustration.

Yes and to think- here we are in this recession with all these empty local shops. There is so much scope for individuals to innovate and meet the needs of the local community thus shortening and actually ending this recession- but sadly there are so many bureaucratic hindrances to change- it does make you feel helpless at times.

My OH is in architecture- he has just helped a client receive planning permission for a pizzeria. No big deal you would think. This took 9 months of drawing submissions and if the client was actually paying him (friend of a friend) it would have cost thousands in fees due to the hours he had to spend tweaking the plans to suit the council. How can the recession ever end with all these roadblocks to entrepreneurship? This is Manchester by the way; maybe they're just one of the annoying councils.

I see lots of opportunities in the local community- I'd start my own business if it wasn't such a pain.

Hectors_House

egyptiangirl wrote: »

:eek:

...and it has been confirmed today by Sainsburys sales announcement.

I have stopped shopping on the high street. Parking in my local town is extortionate.

If I need a book I don't go to Waterstones...I go to the supermarket (it's cheaper)

<Snipped for space>

Yeah, funny that.

I bought books in Waterstones over Chrimble.

I bought work clothes from Debenhams.

I bought meat from my local butcher, but everything else from my local supermarket.

What else do they want me to do to keep them in business?

Could it be that the stupid profit levels they've seen in recent years has been achieved on the back of personal debt so its immoral for them to blame the man in the street for their reduced profits now.

I wonder how all these poor companies managed to pay off their costs and make a profit before credit cards?!

Sheer greed. And they're making people redundent on the back of it.

Conrad

My local farm shop is always incredibly busy, becaus it's so amazing

http://www.pearcesfarmshop.com/

skap7309

So many points raised in this thread it is clear why so many are going bust. I mirror most points aswell. For instance, i have not stepped into a brach of Woolies for about three years as i found it to be too generalised and anything i was after and i could either -

A) Get it cheaper on the net
Get it cheaper in a supermarket
C) Get better quality almost anywhere
D) Get it better quality and cheaper on the net.

Also, it is so much more convenient to shop online. You can find something you like, read reviews from both professionals and consumers, place the order from your desk at lunchtime, place an order at 11pm before you go to bed, compare prices, forget about ques, forget about parking, forget about leaving the comfort of your front room etc and as a result i never go shopping in the high street anymore.

abaxas

Lets take for examples Hexham, our nearest town.

Tesco - free parking up to 3 hours
Rest of the shops - 40p an hour.

I wonder where is busier....?

scope

Forget the supermarket, you should try the internet and you could save yourself even more money.

nickmason

A._Badger wrote: »

What's pretty clear from this thread (and most local shop owners have known it for years) is that the real villains of the piece here are greedy local councils, using 'Green' excuses to ramp-up parking charges, thus deterring even more potential customers from the High St.

Add this to the swingeing rents and business charges and it's pretty obvious that, even ignoring the advantages of scale the supermarkets have, individual shops stand little chance of competing.

I might get bored of saying this - but not yet. The real villains of the piece are not local councils. This is starting to seem like the biggest con perpetrated on the british people; all the blame for central government profligacy (either direct or mandated) is being dumped on local councils. We have very little choice in what we do.

As I have explained at length before, councils' income is a lot more complicated than the council tax. It is just convenient for government to get local authorities to collect the money; and it leaves individuals thinking that that is what funds the local services.

Our council, like every other in the country, gets a grant from government. Ours is (very low) less than the shortfall in the amount of money they give us to pay benefits (we have no choice in the matter) compared with how much they give us to make those payments. Has been for the last 5 years.

Approximately 1/3 of all of our actual expenditure is funded by "charges" of one form or another. The remainder comes from council tax, business rates, and various sundry incomes. We have very little control over those - again the tax (effectively) and the rates (absolutely) are set by central government.

So we can reduce services and/or costs or increase revenue from chargeable services (probably for good reasons, unlike GB and AD we can't sell debt or print money. Nor can we go bankrupt. We checked).

• We can't reduce services - central government has decreed that we do x, y, z.
• We are doing our very best to reduce costs, but there's very little left.
• Leaves us with increasing charges. To be fair, we do have some discretion here - maybe it would be popular if we subsidised the car parking charges by increasing the cost of planning (we do keep pushing this, and in the current climate we probably would find we'd overprice it), or by increasing fines for non-payment of council tax, or by chasing up bad-debts from the unemployed.

I know not every council is good, and none are perfect. But I think this general assumption that it's greedy councils is missing - as you put it - the real villain in the piece.

nickmason

Just to put some rough figures out:

Most of our parking is between 30p for a shortish stay (less than an hour) to £2 for a longish stay (half a day or more) in a short-term car park (ie the most expensive). So not very expensive.

If we removed all of the charges completely, it would cost us about £50K.
That would be roughly a 2.5% increase in council tax.