Rundown town centres

RadcliffeRick said:
Been in Bolton yesterday for the first time in 5 years. What a shithole!! Boarded up shops, shops that are'nt boarded up are crap pound shops or cheap bakeries. Bolton council must be partially responsible for this by selling off large car parks for developement. I was really shocked and saddened by what has been allowed to happen to a once thriving and good city centre. Is this happening all over or is it just Bolton?
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They made a real balls up in Bolton. Spent a fortune doing up the indoor market and made it pretty good. Then they sell it off and turn it into a high end mall that no fucker goes in, completely killing trade on that side of town.
The food market aint to bad and has a cracking little bar in it, apart from that not much else.
 
Dave Ewing's Back 'eader said:
My chosen town centre. Beales shut and that had the best cafe in town. It wasn't losing money so I don't know why they left. Perhaps they weren't making enough. They then suggested that we would be very welcome at the Bolton store. They can fuck off!

I think Rochdale is hanging on. In one survey a year or two back we were second from the bottom. Bottom place was Stockport.
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Have to disagree mate .... We have lived in the area (Marland) since 2000, and in that time the town centre has declined so much. So many decent businesses have closed and been replaced by crap/charity shops, and the growth of grotty takeaways is staggering. Add to it the aggressive beggars and lowlifes prowling Yorkshire St, it's only going to get worse.

I only go in now to use the Nationwide, and get my haircut at Mike's Barbers (Fellow Newton Heath lad, and Blue ... City stuff in shop) ..... and a while ago, came out of his to a parking ticket because even though I had paid, it was from the 'wrong' machine .... Really encouraging us to come on down ...
 
Ifwecouldjust....... said:
This happened near us.....local town centre full of charity shops, greggs and Poundlands or boarded up. Council appointed a new town centre manager who's only action has been to increase car parking charges from 20p for the first hour to £1..............guess what...even Morrisons on the edge of town has now shut
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Which is part of the problem - the managementisation of an institution that just evolved naturally and didn't need managing but somebody somewhere decides what the town needs is a town centre manager - an expert who probably doesn't have extensive retail experience and has never run a business............. but they can manage !! Purpose built shopping centres are artificial environments that start at a "year zero" and require all sorts of facilities management on site - that just doesn't translate to an open air organically evolving town centre. You get somebody enforcing what they think are good ides on the centre than there are politically based inputs from councils and councillors ........ end result no parking or increased cost of parking that sort of thing.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
I'm staggered no-one's yet mentioned the most significant cause of the recent acceleration of the decline, given that you're all on it right now!
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The issue is
High rents by shop landlords fleecing shop owners
High business rates by the council because they can't manage a budget
Draconian parking charges in the name of 'going green' turning off customers.

Hence people would rather go to an outside of town hell hole like the Trafford Centre for the convenience
 
MCFCTrick said:
Have to disagree mate .... We have lived in the area (Marland) since 2000, and in that time the town centre has declined so much. So many decent businesses have closed and been replaced by crap/charity shops, and the growth of grotty takeaways is staggering. Add to it the aggressive beggars and lowlifes prowling Yorkshire St, it's only going to get worse.

I only go in now to use the Nationwide, and get my haircut at Mike's Barbers (Fellow Newton Heath lad, and Blue ... City stuff in shop) ..... and a while ago, came out of his to a parking ticket because even though I had paid, it was from the 'wrong' machine .... Really encouraging us to come on down ...
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It has declined. I started work in Rochdale in '68 and moved to Littleborough in '77. We still have a core of decent shops, and if a good chain moves into the old Co-op it will show the signs of improvement. Getting involved with Middleton and Heywood ne'er did Rochdale any favours, though. The disappearance of the cream and blue buses were the first signs. I'm waiting for a latter-day Hitler to sell the Town Hall.
 
I agree totally with the idea of shopping areas /markets being left to evolve naturally.
The managers employed to inflict shopping mall hell upon us have a lot to answer for.
(Other ther industries have been similarly negatively affected. )
 
Its all the local councils fault they are too greedy, instead of lowering rents and rates to atract shops and cafe/restaurants they put them up, until they wake up and figure it out it will stay they same.
 
Ifwecouldjust....... said:
This happened near us.....local town centre full of charity shops, greggs and Poundlands or boarded up. Council appointed a new town centre manager who's only action has been to increase car parking charges from 20p for the first hour to £1..............guess what...even Morrisons on the edge of town has now shut
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If you don't live in Burnham on Sea in Somerset I am amazed. That is word for word what has happened here, including the new town centre manager.
 
It could've very easily been Bury on the list.
I hated the town centre and its crappy market for years. Its my nearest town but I always said I'm from Whitefield (which is south Bury).

But fair enough what the council did on the The Rock over 5 years ago, turning it into a shopping, living and entertainment space could almost be described as visionary. Where others have drowned, Bury has thrived.
Its got great transport links and colleges and i'd much rather go there now than the Trafford Center to shop or watch a movie.
I'd still go to Manchester for a night out but my nights out are declining with age anyway now.

But yeah, I'm quite proud of the place now.
 
Bristol.

People have this lovely image of Bristol with Clifton suspension bridge gracefully spanning the avon gorge, and the lovely victorian houses in Clifton and Clifton Village. Picture postcard. Lovely.

The reality is the whole City is pretty much a shit hole with individual districts vying for being the shittest:

Hartcliffe - not safe at night. Or the daytime.
Lawrence Weston - makes Harlem look like Martha's Vinyard
Southmead - make sure you have a gun on you
Lockleaze - I'd rather live in Strangeways. Most of the residents used to.
St. Pauls - up and coming. From the very bottom
Bedminster - "bohemian". AKA "a total shithole"
Patchway - cheapest drugs in town
Easton - Average life expectancy, 26
St. Werbergs - Handy if you fancy a shag for £20

I can go on and on. The whole place is an utter dump.
 
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Not so much a town but when i bought my first house in Tyldesley (I didnt drive) i had everything i needed on the high street. Butchers, greengrocers, supermarket and a couple of take a ways. Fast forward 15 years i have something like 7 kebab houses and 3 bookies.
 
A couple of years ago Glossop was mainly charity shops and pound shops.. now there's a whole load of pretentious boutiques, artisan food shops, craft shops, coffee lounges, ''vintage'' (secondhand) shops and an eye-wateringly expensive furniture shop.

All these places just sell overpriced shite to desperate, gullible debt junkie mugs who are willing to buy it just so they can post pictures of their latest purchase on facebook.

I honestly preferred it as it was, at least you could buy stuff you actually needed for a sensible price.... now all you can buy is smelly candles, expensive coffees and hand crafted rustic bread.
 
The Silver Surfer said:
It could've very easily been Bury on the list.
I hated the town centre and its crappy market for years. Its my nearest town but I always said I'm from Whitefield (which is south Bury).

But fair enough what the council did on the The Rock over 5 years ago, turning it into a shopping, living and entertainment space could almost be described as visionary. Where others have drowned, Bury has thrived.
Its got great transport links and colleges and i'd much rather go there now than the Trafford Center to shop or watch a movie.
I'd still go to Manchester for a night out but my nights out are declining with age anyway now.

But yeah, I'm quite proud of the place now.
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Bury has done well with the development of the Rock but you can't underestimate the pull of the market. Coach loads of pensioners travel in because of it. The Rock could quite easily have been a white elephant were it not for the existing pull of the 'world famous' market. It might not be to your taste but it is authentic and marks Bury out from the identikit town centres up and down the country. Rochdale and Bolton ruined their markets and both have suffered as a result.
 
Chippy_boy said:
Bristol.

People have this lovely image of Bristol with Clifton suspension bridge gracefully spanning the avon gorge, and the lovely victorian houses in Clifton and Clifton Village. Picture postcard. Lovely.

The reality is the whole City is pretty much a shit hole with individual districts vying for being the shittest:

Hartcliffe - not safe at night. Or the daytime.
Lawrence Weston - makes Harlem look like Martha's Vinyard
Southmead - make sure you have a gun on you
Lockleaze - I'd rather live in Strangeways. Most of the residents used to.
St. Pauls - up and coming. From the very bottom
Bedminster - "bohemian". AKA "a total shithole"
Patchway - cheapest drugs in town
Easton - Average life expectancy, 26
St. Werbergs - Handy if you fancy a shag for £20

I can go on and on. The whole place is an utter dump.
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Portishead and the Marina nice places to visit,we always stay at the travel lodge in Portishead on the way down to Bude.Good bars and places to eat and very dog friendly for Bluey our cockerpoo.
 
No surprise that those towns with the highest concentration of chavs are the shittiest.

Or on the other hand, are chavs drawn like flies to a turd to the towns where there are poundshops, greggs and bookies?

Makes you wonder.
 
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