Rundown town centres

The leafy Cheshire Village of Dukinfield seems to have avoided wholesale decline......as the rest of the catch up ;)
 
Bilboblue said:
Always said a town is dead as soon as the high street is full of shite-looking takeaways and charity shops.

I live in a place called Totton, just outside Southampton and to be honest, from being the fastest growing town in Europe in the late 80's/early 90's, it has turned into a bit of a dump, pubs that are still open are shite and serve rubbish 'name' lagers and crap like Doom Bar.

The huge West Quay development in the centre of Southampton sounded the death knell for smaller places outside the city.
Most of the local areas like Totton, Hythe, Bitterne, Shirley and Bassett have gone to the dogs.
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I used to work out of an office in Totton, late 80's. It was a shit hole back then as was Northam and Thornhill
 
masterwig said:
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.
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I see your point. Maybe I just don't like the crampness of it and the feeling your're in a rabbit hole. Plus the fish market smells don't help!

It does have some good food stalls i'll give it that, proper roast meat and loads of diversity in choice. But compared to Radcliffe or other markets, yes it beats them hands down.
 
My point about Bristol is that virtually the entire city needs bulldozing. Most towns have the posh areas, the OK areas and the run-down areas. Bristol has 1 posh area and 39 run-down areas. It's thousands of acres of meh. And yet, bizarrely, when I say I live in Bristol, peoples' eyes light up and they say "ooo, isn't Bristol lovely". It's like some Orwellian big brother/emperor's new clothes thing going on. I feel like saying, "have you BEEN to Hartcliff"??? Chernobyl is nicer.
 
Ashton was like the land that time forgot when I was last there. Zombies masquerading as humans drifted from B to A whilst traders had little to offer in terms of quality or value. The Ikea looks handy but that's about it.

You can buy whilst horizontal with just a few clicks. Why do anything else?
 
peoffrey said:
Ashton was like the land that time forgot when I was last there. Zombies masquerading as humans drifted from B to A whilst traders had little to offer in terms of quality or value. The Ikea looks handy but that's about it.

You can buy whilst horizontal with just a few clicks. Why do anything else?
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....because you are supporting a local business, or supporting a business that employs local people. Because that business will probably pay the correct tax to our government. Because your purchase won't be clogging up the streets (even assuming you don't send it back) whilst a 'self-employed' delivery driver attempts to meet his/her targets. Because sometimes its good to get off your arse and get out of the house. Because if no one supports their local shops we'll end up with streets of opticians, chain stores, fried chicken shops and estate agents or rows of shuttered up units like that photo from Bristol.

Admittedly, I would not go to Ashton to do any shopping.
 
Hyde struggling to be anything but a dump, I know I shop there every weekend - multiple variables at play. Major & Gummer taking backhanders to allow our of town development in the 90s started the current rot. Excacerbated recently by the Internet option for shopping - obviously, councils on the whole run by either well intentioned but generally incompetent (Lab LD councillors) or bent/corrupt ones (Tories) forgive the generalisations but I'm a subjective twunt.

Back that up with a huge tightening of the purse strings from central government as thanks to dishonest thieving financial institutions & a compliant Lab government & now a gleeful Tory one we 'endure' austerity politics, so tax dodging corporates can continue to move cash around globally rather than pay their share.

Game is up & the high street as a 'go to' for shopping is nearly dead, and irrespective of all of the above this was almost certainly going to happen eventually, best course of action now is to try and develop as much as possible as affordable housing stock.
 
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chaddblue said:
Oldham town centre is dying on its feet. Even the nightlife which was once thriving has all but disappeared

The new metrolink extension was supposed to breath life into the town but doesn't appear to have made any difference. In fact its probably made it worse as its now easier to get out of there

They've just opened a new cinema and restaurants right in the town centre. Bit early to see if this helps, but I was in the Nando's last night and at 9pm there were 3 tables occupied including mine

M&S were supposed to be opening a new big store but a few weeks ago it was announced they pulled out of negotiations. Could be the final nail in the coffin for the place
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oh well at least you can get a halal slaughtered goat
 
snorky said:
Yep, and the council put up the car parking charges and are now considering on street parking meters. Town centre is dying.
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Councils cannot afford to provide basic social care. Parking is hardly a priority for subsidies.

Paying around 60p an hour is hardly going to put people off shopping if the shops sell what they want.

Town centres are on their arses for several reasons. Councils are not mostly to blame. Government (who actually control the purse strings), internet shopping, large out of town shopping centres and supermarkets are most likely the main reasons.
 
Dave Ewing's Back 'eader said:
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.
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It did even less for Heywood and Midd. Worst thing that ever happened to the town was the day Rochdale took over. You find many people in Heywood who are old enough to remember when we had our own council with any love for Rochdale.
 
squirtyflower said:
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
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Do councils set business rates? I know they collect them but I thought rateable value was set by government via the Valuation Office Agency (HMRC). I believe the rateable value is set centrally to avoid local authorities under cutting each other.


its a Barm said:
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.
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I would make an educated guess that, on the whole, councils do not "own" town centres. A lot of town centre shopping precincts and retail developments are owned by investments/savings trusts, property companies and individual landlords.
 
Barcon said:
How the fuck did paying to park at the shops ever get approved?
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Fuck knows, but I'm part of the decline of the high street because apart from food and drink I get most everything else online. No parking Nazis to contend with, no kids screaming the place down and no pensioners in their spacker chariots doing their best Ben Hur impression.
 
stony said:
Fuck knows, but I'm part of the decline of the high street because apart from food and drink I get most everything else online. No parking Nazis to contend with, no kids screaming the place down and no pensioners in their spacker chariots doing their best Ben Hur impression.
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It's mental. I'll pay if I'm going downtown to a gig or a restaurant but no way would I pay if I was going out for grocery's.
Thankfully we haven't got that cheap over here yet. Although the cock end in charge now wants us to pay to use the highway into town.
 
Barcon said:
It's mental. I'll pay if I'm going downtown to a gig or a restaurant but no way would I pay if I was going out for grocery's.
Thankfully we haven't got that cheap over here yet. Although the cock end in charge now wants us to pay to use the highway into town.
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I use Amazon for everything I can't get at Moggies or Tesco express. I fucking detest shopping. Hospital parking is a fucking nightmare, it costs us about £6 every visit.
 
Barcon said:
It's mental. I'll pay if I'm going downtown to a gig or a restaurant but no way would I pay if I was going out for grocery's.
Thankfully we haven't got that cheap over here yet. Although the cock end in charge now wants us to pay to use the highway into town.
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It'll keep the riff raff out......ie you
 
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