When Crabbies finally opens its new store in Dunbar, one of 2 things is likely to occur. People will either abandon Dunbar High Street for the supposedly higher quality, better value, more welcoming and safer shopping experience out of town; or – and I put my money on the this – more people will come to the High Street to check out what else is on offer in Dunbar.
The trouble is right now I reckon those people might well be disappointed. They might well also complain there is nowhere obvious to park or worse – with some notable exceptions – conclude there is nothing to much do, particularly if they swing by on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday.
So, what could be done to make the High Street more welcoming and attractive to locals and to visitors alike? I have 8 initial suggestions that concentrate on the High Street environment. My next article will look at how the High Street shopping experience could be adjusted and tuned to maximise benefits for locals and tourism.
But to kick off with here are my top eight environment measures :
- Cleaner Pavements – you would think that in this day and age it would be second nature to keep streets free from dog mess, the residues of fizzy drinks and beer, the remains of takeaways and that the littering laws would be strictly enforced – clean pavements could also help controlling Dunbar’s increasing nesting gull population;
- Welcoming bus stops – the stands should be upgraded to a standard befitting a historic High Street – at the moment they are nothing less than disgusting needing cleaning at least once daily;
- Stamp out cigarettes – take-away establishments, pubs and convenience stores should take responsibility for the litter smokers create outside their establishments – even where there is provision it is not used properly and not kept clean;
- Spruce up the planting schemes – all the permanent planters should be removed and replaced with well-protected trees; only temporary seasonal planters should be laid out, since it is clear that winter plantings are unaffordable;
- Encourage use of car parks not the high street for parking – locals and visitors alike should be encouraged to use the local car parking facilities, which should leave more room for pedestrians on the High Street and allow public transport to operate and deliveries take place without hindrance and give blue badge drivers greater flexibility too;
- Make the High Street pedestrian and cycle friendly – through new signage, clearer crossing points or , small changes in car parking provision, vehicle unloading bays, cycle stands and cycle paths;
- Restrict deliveries – deliveries should be restricted to between 9 and 12 and only on weekdays minimising the disturbance they cause to pedestrians, cyclists and residents alike;
- An High Street face lift – landlords and owner-occupiers should be forced to maintain and repair properties to higher standard, including as a minimum fixing leaking gutters – if not the council should undertake the repairs itself using improvement notice powers, and use enforcement powers to remove illegal satellite dishes and similar intrusions;
If we all did a little imagine what would be possible?