Imagine your high street without any small, independent, family run shops. No greengrocer, butcher, baker, grocer, fishmonger, hardware, bookshop or newsagent. Independent shops are closing at the rate of 2,000 a year, and if we are not careful, our streets will be full of bland, identical chain stores with the same goods for sale all over the country. Our high streets will lose their character and local distinctiveness as well as becoming vulnerable to the global uncertainties of companies with no local responsibilities.
In our leaflet ‘Local Distinctiveness’ we wrote in 1990, “We share a land of extraordinary variety, rich in buildings, landscapes, people and wild life, with old and new cultural associations. That richness of local diversity is under siege. Mass production, increased mobility and forceful promotion of corporate identity has brought us uniform shop fronts, farm buildings, factories, forests and front doors. Intensive farming has created an increasingly bland countryside. New estates offer the ‘Cheviot’ or ‘Purbeck’ house in any part of the country.”
“This erosion of difference and bleaching of identity, detail, craftsmanship and meaning affects us all, emotionally and culturally. It impoverishes the spirit and often our resolve to do something about it.”
The High Street (or Fore Street in the south west) is usually the economic and social heart of the town. Insensitive town centre redesigns with cheap paving materials and mock/reproduction? Victorian street furniture, along with the removal of the market/market place to make way for car parking, are sapping away the souls of places.
The demise of small, independent shops
The All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group estimates that by 2015 “many small shops across the UK will have ceased trading ….with few independent businesses taking their place.” For them, ‘the small retail sector is a key driver of : entrepreneurship, employment, skills, local economies, innovation, and sophisticated business networks, as well as accessibility to vital goods and services, diversity, social inclusion and community activities.” (1) To this list we would add: character, individuality and local distinctiveness. The names of family firms across the shop fascia is another key to knowing where you are.
Small bookshops are now on the endangered list. Greengrocers are the worst hit, declining by 59% between 1992-2002, succumbing, no doubt, to the power of the superstores. Hay-on-Wye greengrocer, Charlie Hicks is breathing new life into the greengrocer trade by selling the best seasonal locally grown food, even if available in small quantities, and home grown food, without turning his back on imported fruit and vegetables from Europe and elsewhere. His web pages tell us what is in season, and what he has in stock – mouth watering descriptions – such as “Locally grown, organic, unwashed Cosmos potatoes and carrots. Superb flavour, possibly the best carrots we’ve ever tasted.” Many greengrocers only sell fruit and vegetables they pick up from the regional wholesale market, so local produce doesn’t get a look in.
Community Shops
Some villages are fighting the closure of their last / only shop by creating local community owned and run shops / post offices / village stores. In Tackley, Oxon, 50 volunteers run the only village shop (selling local produce) cum post office plus café and internet station. Middleton Tyas in North Yorkshire has its own community owned village store (supported by the Village Retail Services Association, VIRSA) which sells local produce, groceries, fruit and vegetables, bread baked in store, newspapers and drink… as does Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire…
VIRSA helps rural communities to set up and run a community owned shops and co-operatives. Of the 150 community-owned shops in England, most have been supported by the charity, now an activity of the Plunkett Foundation. www.virsa.org
Stopping the Clones
In the USA, Nantucket (Massachusetts), Carmel-by-the-Sea (California), Bristol (Rhode Island) and Ogunquit (Maine) are all trying to prevent chain stores such as Starbucks and clothing retailer Ralph Lauren from moving into their high street. “As the country starts to look like everywhere else, this was about protecting our uniqueness”. Wendy Hudson, Nantucket. “ Beth Simonsis put it“…celebrating saving Nantucket’s town centre from becoming another carbon copy of Everywhereelse, USA.” From: “Mind the Gap? US resort bans nation’s favourite retailers” by David Usborne, The Independent 8 / 4 / 06.
Much of Marylebone High Street and the area around it in central London is run by the Howard de Walden Estates, who have since the early 1990s tried to retain a mix of small, useful independent shops – which has proved very popular with shoppers. They were furious when a Tesco Express appeared in one of the few buildings they do not own.
The New Economics Foundation have coined the phrase ‘Clone Town’ to describe the loss of identity in our high streets. In 2005 their survey found that 42% of UK towns were clone towns and a further 26% were under threat (2). The All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group recommends that local authorities adopt a retail strategy as part of the Unitary Development Plan.
N.B. On 9 May 2006 the Office of Fair Trading announced that the power of the superstore to skew the market will be scrutinized by the Competition Commission.
What we can do:
Use our local independent shops.
Ask the planning authority to make a policy in favour of small shops which ensures there is a good mix of shops in the high street. The All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group recommends that local authorities adopt a retail strategy as part of the Unitary Development Plan
Lobby your council to give small independent retailers rate relief and to put a limit on the size of new stores.
If a superstore puts in a planning application for a convenience store in your high street, ask your planning officer to follow the London Borough of Barnet’s example who refused planning permission for a Tesco Express store in Finchley (Jan 06). They did this on the grounds that it would damage other local shops.
Support Local Works’ Campaign for the Sustainable Communities Bill to empower local people to improve their own places. Write to your MP asking him/her to support Early Day Motion no 641 in support of the Sustainable Communities Bill. www . localworks . org
Refs:
(1) High Street Britain: 2015, House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group, 2006.
(2) Clone Town Britain, New Economics Foundation, 2005. www . neweconomics . org
Case Book:
Aylsham Partnership, Aylsham, Norfolk (coming soon)
