{"id":1081,"date":"2013-07-10T00:30:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T23:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abbeylandsresidents.org.uk\/?p=1081"},"modified":"2013-09-03T09:56:04","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T08:56:04","slug":"battling-to-save-britains-high-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/battling-to-save-britains-high-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Battling to save Britain’s high streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"We're<\/a>Throughout July to mark\u00a0Independent Retailer Month<\/a>\u00a0some shops are offering discounts, others running competitions and still more putting on live music in a bid to get mre custom.<\/p>\n

But nothing here in Dunbar:\u00a0Independent Retailer Month Events<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A month of events could have been used to raise awareness, but it looks like few took this opportunity seriously, or simply lacked the time and resources to make something happen during what has to be Scotland’s favourite month to take time off. \u00a0Trades weeks have to be a major cost to Scotland’s economy, just like Bank Holidays and those interminably long school holidays and associated complicated arrangements, which so frustrate those with children at school in city and country.<\/p>\n

Returning to the High Street, longer-term initiatives are needed. \u00a0Resources are needed. Management skills are needed. \u00a0Time is needed. A revolution is needed. Evolution has not worked well resulting in a somewhat backward looking and deprofessionalised independent sector, competing with highly organised and well funded oppositions, whether it be the supermarkets or chains and betting shops.<\/p>\n

Some say there is a need for new ways, designed around the way we currently shop as getting us to fundamentally change the way we shop is going to be uphill. \u00a0I am not averse to the idea that High Street traders use some of the tactics indulged in by larger retailers. And this is the gist of\u00a0The Guardian article which ran\u00a0last thursday<\/a> and trailed again in the weekend print edition. Interesting to see some locally based versions of tried and tested mainstream initiatives.<\/p>\n

Gift Cards (such as Your Street Gift Cards<\/a>), Loyalty Schemes (see the cute\u00a0Tag Pass It On<\/a> link above, or Addictive Points, an innovative plug and play rewards program. Retailersreward their customers, online and offline, for purchasing, sharing, commenting, reviewing, inviting, registrations, and more), Online schemes (such as\u00a0OpenHighStreet<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0MyHigh.St<\/a>)\u00a0are helping smaller independents compete with the big guys.\u00a0A new local focus from the much maligned discount site Groupon came when it\u00a0launched a campaign<\/a>\u00a0called “I Love Bradford”. Hum. \u00a0Aren’t these all recipes that are designed to make money for the scheme operators? Can they really deliver additional value for customers and retailers too by intermediating – or they just a cost of marketing, but trackable and therefore measurable? It is a field rich with opportunities, but will it save the High Street. What is that you are trying to save?<\/p>\n

As usual I skip quickly to the comments section in the Guru-adian, where significant blame is placed at the door of traders themselves (mainly for not keeping up with the times), parking policies (though funny how town centres seem to work best in old European market towns where it is a total nightmare to park?), and policy makers and implementers (who have contributed to the mess by making town centres no go areas for residents, ballsing up oneway systems and streetscapes generally to make them unfriendly for people).<\/p>\n

There’s a smattering of interesting observations.<\/p>\n

What if parking in supermarkets wasn’t free?<\/p>\n

What about the high street model changing to fit the working patterns of the customers, not the other way around?<\/p>\n

Look to the US – of all places – which has recognised that “dense urban communities” are richer, happier, healthier and have less environmental impact?<\/p>\n

We – town dwellers – are paying for the rest of the country to continue living a dystopian surburban fantasy, obsessed with cars, insular but homogeneous and with little or no community (cue a new inaccessible housing development – out of town).<\/p>\n

I estimate that only 20% of the people on the street on a week day are in work.<\/p>\n

For more dystopian views head over to the Torygraph<\/a>, and the latest from the planning Minister Nick Bowles<\/a>, who is as much as admitting that the High Street is dead, as is Mary Portas’ “town centre first” policy, quietly adopted by Malcolm Fraser north of the border here in Scotland.<\/p>\n

But I say that if your High Street is closed for business, not just failing to adapt, and is hostile to residents to boot, everyone suffers and will be reflected in house prices going down (who wants to live on dump of a high street?). Low shop rents or similar incentives will just attract the wrong sort of businesses. So there it is – its the economy stupid?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout July to mark\u00a0Independent Retailer Month\u00a0some shops are offering discounts, others running competitions and still more putting on live music in a bid to get mre custom. But nothing here in Dunbar:\u00a0Independent Retailer Month Events. A month of events could have been used to raise awareness, but it looks like few took this opportunity seriously, … Continue reading Battling to save Britain’s high streets<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1226,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/high-speeds-on-dunbar-high-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":1081,"position":0},"title":"High Speeds on Dunbar High Street!","author":"templar","date":"August 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Just over a year ago BT announced a major investment for Dunbar in high speed Broadband. This is the sort of speed that local residents are unlikely to complain about, though we might want to spare a thought for the digital have-nots in the \"remote rural\" countryside nearby. Broadband speeds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2402,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/drive-through-dumbar\/","url_meta":{"origin":1081,"position":1},"title":"Drive through Dumbar","author":"templar","date":"February 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"No doubt there were\u00a0loud cheers when McBurgher's announced their\u00a0intention to locate a new drive-through just down the road. And what better place to locate it? Although Dumbar isn't quite the Drive Thru Town it used to be, more Drive Past, it is now officially a Take-Away and Throw-Away Town with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2016\/02\/1-PA110001.jpg?fit=1000%2C564&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2016\/02\/1-PA110001.jpg?fit=1000%2C564&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2016\/02\/1-PA110001.jpg?fit=1000%2C564&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2016\/02\/1-PA110001.jpg?fit=1000%2C564&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1088,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/can-littering-affect-house-prices\/","url_meta":{"origin":1081,"position":2},"title":"Can littering affect house prices?","author":"templar","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently the Scottish Government thinks so and has totted up the total to a bewildering \u00a325 million. Wow! I wonder what methodology was used and what the confidence interval is? +\/- \u00a315 million? [1. A final significant area looked at for this study was the potential for litter to impact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"litter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/07\/litter-300x157.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/dunbars-lost-history-in-the-making-abbey-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":1081,"position":3},"title":"Dunbar’s lost history in the making: Abbey Church","author":"templar","date":"June 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Previously on Abbeylands I wrote about the plans for the Abbey Church to be converted into a 5 bedroom, 3 story home. Listed Building Consent was refused earlier this year. At exactly the time I was writing, the architect Grahame Armet submitted an appeal (3 June 2012). The substance of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Abbey Church"","block_context":{"text":"Abbey Church","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/abbey-church\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2012\/06\/Abbey-Church-Front-Elevation-Before.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":734,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/8-things-to-improve-the-shopping-experience-in-dunbar\/","url_meta":{"origin":1081,"position":4},"title":"8 things to improve the shopping experience in Dunbar","author":"templar","date":"February 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I wrote a short piece on how we could relatively easily improve Dunbar's High Street environment through some well targeted and concerted action on some of the obvious environmental bads. \u00a0Hardly rocket science and it certainly doesn't need a government report to tell you how, though I await with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/proposed-waiting-and-loading-restrictions-in-dunbar-ensure-high-street-is-resident-parking-free-zone\/","url_meta":{"origin":1081,"position":5},"title":"Proposed Waiting and Loading Restrictions in Dunbar ensure High Street is Resident Parking-Free Zone","author":"Barodunum","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"East Lothian Council is recommending that the existing Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for Dunbar be amended to reflect current parking behaviour and road use by residents and businesses.\u00a0A formal consultation letter has been sent out to statutory consultees. The Council would also like to gather the views of others with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dunbar-Proposed-TRO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/02\/Dunbar-Proposed-TRO.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/02\/Dunbar-Proposed-TRO.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/02\/Dunbar-Proposed-TRO.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}