Wednesday, 3 February 2010
state of the High Street
They're has been so many posts about the state of the High Street and i'm sorry to add another but i want to vent my frustration. As a local shop trader for nearly ten years in the town i have never known business to be so bad, things just go from bad to worse year on year, shops are closing regularly and there is no reason for new traders to open. We waste money on projects that add no benefit and have a town centre manager that is never seen, our shopping centre is laughable and the High Street is deserted. I hate to have to say it but after many years of struggling i cannot be bothered anymore and am planning to pull out at the end of my lease (end of march) I cannot see this town improving within the next ten years as it will take such a mammoth task to get it back on it's feet, if that should ever happen.
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I agree. From a customer's point of view, there is a real down-at-heel feel to Dorking. Why anyone would venture down St Martin's walk is beyond me and I have to feel sorry for the remaining shop traders who are down there.
ReplyDeleteI see "Juice" has shut down, although there has been recent activity in what was Jane Elliott. How long has that been empty? Three years?
Also, Bookends is now operating as a haberdashery!! When did that happen? And how do you think it was taken so quickly?
If the town management really wanted to help Dorking it should think big, really big. Sticking plaster remedies aren't working. The town needs to be by-passed East to West and the centre pedestrianised, or a large section of the centre needs to be re-developed to provide a focal point, be it a town square, a market of some sort, or even a great big free car park to get people into the town.
The town is dying a slow, strangled death and it is shameful.
Concerned of Dorking
DORKING TOWN MANAGEMENT COULD NOT MANAGE TO BLOW UP A BALLOON.
ReplyDeleteTIME TO CLOSE IT DOWN
What about all this hype in last week's local rag that seventeen (yes seventeen shops were planning to open up in Dorking very shortly! What a load of crap - what Dorking needs is cheaper parking to pull in people from neighbouring towns, a town centre manager that cares about the town and shops that will pull in from other towns - how about a HMV, a decent clothing retailer and apparently the former Jane Elliot shop is going to be another nail salon - yippee! What is it with Dorking? we have loads of nail salons, coffee shops, restaurants and cafes and not much else. It is little why people are heading to other towns as town centre management and Mole Valley do not give a toss about Dorking! Does anyone have any idea what the Woolworths is going to be? Knowing Dorking, it will probably be a supersize charity shop and the units down in St Martins Work (which are apparently under offer!) will probably be short term lets filled with more useless shops! Barry
ReplyDeleteAll this doom and gloom is bad for the likes of dorking. If businesses are struggling, why don't they put their points on a letter to the town centre mgr or mole Valley district council. Also they should think about advertising in the challenger, the dorking diary, dorking advertiser or the surrey life magazine to highlight the goods they have on offer, sales etc. It is very hard for the retailers at the moment, as most shoppers are worried about their jobs, the recession, bills ie. utility, council tax and tax bills. Agree wholehardtedly that i have not heard from the town centre mgr in the local press for months and it is a damn shame that she seems to have given up promoting dorking as a place to shop and visit. BTW to the first post commenting about the state of the high street which shop do you trade as? Do you have any good deals at present? X
ReplyDeleteActually the clothes shop Juice has closed but has opened up in Reigate!
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI have in the past written to the TCM a copy of this letter can be read in my shop. The only reaction to this was that Simon Matthews threatened me with legal action if I dare critize her again...
ShrewdSonja
Sorry to say its not just the state if the High Street.
ReplyDeleteIts the state of the WHOLE TOWN.
Wonton neglect of our town by MVDC.
I attended the Forum in the church hall in the centre of Dorking and could not believe what I saw and heard.
More councellors and MVDC officers than the public,
congratulating themselves on keeping the council tax down but increasing charges for every single service that the council provides to the public.
I think its called SLIT of hand or raising taxes through other means.
The following are a number of hidden increases,car parking up again,burying your loved ones etc and it goes on and on.
Don't forget the 30+ people made redunant.
Will the councellors increase there fee's and expenses ????.
Yet we can find another £2,500,000 for Leatherhead Leisure Centre.
We should be spending £500,000 on improving the town centre NOW getting the market back on the high street not taking 2 years talking about it then another 8years putting plans into place.
We should be lowering carparking charges down to 20 pence for the first hour to get the people back into Dorking by having full carparks the revenue will be increased,finding ways of attracting the public back and not this crazy idea of building an OUT OF TOWN supermarket which will kill Dorking totally off.
Leslie Gilbert
SORRY ERROR
ReplyDeleteShould read
"SLIGHT OF HAND"
Many regrets
Actually, it should have been 'sleight of hand' - but I am a pedant!
ReplyDeletethanks who ever you are
ReplyDeleteThis post has raised a fundamental factor into the reason Dorking is the way it is.
ReplyDeleteWith the rise of out of town supermarkets, internet shopping, the shear choice in anything we purchase now days and the ease of use of the car it is inevitable that certain towns will not survive. Just like the demise of the corner shop and the small neighbourhood districts of half a dozen local village shops we are currently in the middle of a change of the economic landscape of the UK. It's not just Dorking that is suffering, many UK towns are losing shops and shoppers in droves and in decades to come these towns will all but dissappear all together to leave fewer small towns that will become 'select' towns that are attractive and desireable to visit.
Unfortunately there was no main reason for this happening to Dorking other than the fact that when the 'massive' recession hit Dorking 24-36 months ago there was not many great shops to sustain the town thus creating no desire for other great shops to enter into the town, Dorking also suffered losses of Woolworths, Currys etc. and no anchor supermarket within the town it ended up losing it's way.
The likes of Reigate, Cobham etc rise from the ashes and can survive another day, in the long run however most small towns days are numbered.
Please stop moaning!!!!! Whatabout the new shops that have opened recently? West street has a new clothes shop, the High Street a new clothes and accessories shop, and greengrocer has opened and a cafe/deli.... Apparently the library is moving to St Martins Walk - which might explain why the doors of some units say they are under offer. All this negativity is really unproductive!
ReplyDeleteNew shops? What's that post going on about. 'Negativity is unproductive' If anyone can tell me what shop in the town is 'cashing in' at the moment i'll eat my words, I can assure all fellow retailers burying your head in the sand is not the answer to Dorking's High Street economic crisis.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that there isn't much you can't buy in Dorking. We are often compared to Reigate, Leatherhead and Cobham. Well, I think that if you were given a random selection of items to go and buy, you would be more likely to get them all in Dorking.
ReplyDeleteWhat can you not buy in our town? Not sure there is anyone selling music CD's, is there? Not since Woolworths closed, but I am sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
Designer handbags? Maybe.
I once read an opinion (may have been on here actually) that Dorking has too many shops for not a big enough population. It may be as simple as that. Sure, it doesn't help that the High Street has a run-down feel to it, but maybe the town would benefit with a few shops at either end of the town having a change of use, to housing.
If I am right in this, the new construction on the old Harley site may have a hell of a job letting the new building, especially as that little parade at the extreme Eastern end of the high street looks like it will be comletely deserted soon. All three units have "To Let" signs up.
Pete
Anybody know if there is truth in the rumour that the shopkeepers are all getting together to put hanging baskets back on the High St?
ReplyDeleteHaving just come to this thread, how sad to see all the old comments from Cockerel's blog and I suppose this comment similarly. All of it before the financial crisis impinged so much on matters (and Council activity) and making it so sad that those in control didn't produce the right decisions 'back when'. Everything said pales into insignificance....parking charges, TCM activity, etc., etc..... as the only way we'll get the increase in shoppers needed in the town is by getting that much needed anchor store in the centre. All else will follow from that - the whole ambience of the place uplifted. An absolute no-brainer which was always achievable without desecrating the place in any way.
ReplyDeleteNow in this week's Advertiser we find that the 'back of St.Martin's walk' area is in the melting pot again; great, as it provides the answer but sad that the answer could have been provided within the St.Martin's Walk confines without any displacement of other land uses. Do MVDC have the whit this time to think ahead? Not if Cllr Chris Hunt's ill-informed comment in the 'Ad' is indicative of their thinking. Now that is grounds for negativity when the news should allow us to be optimistic at last.
does the op run the pet shop, or do we have another shop gone?
ReplyDelete