The High Street Diaries

Shopkeeper of 25 years with weekly newsletter on UK High Streets & Gov Policy. Strictly non-party political.
Owner of Thirty Three Boutique Lymington & Wimborne

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

I have finally decided to close my shop down in the centre of Bournemouth.

This is why…

[John Doe @New_Wesphalian]

This is going to be a very important experiment which should be instructive to every other metropolitan centre in the UK.
Already we know that business has suffered due to the congestion charge. People who need to drive to a business simply go elsewhere.
When this system is implemented, I suspect we will see the many businesses becomes totally unsustainable in a matter of months, and footfall will crash. Also, businesses outside the zones that exist around the access the ring road supplies will find life harder as the traffic is pushed out to it.

If I'm wrong and this works without harming business, you can expect this to be the future of every major town. Maybe even if it destroys business they will double down on it and extend it to many other places just out of ideology - change the landscape and call it 'creative destruction'.

But I suspect it will be a bloody disaster.

[Save East Oxford Businesses @eastoxbusiness]

The zoning of Oxford starts at the end of september.

Unless you have a permit you have to pay £70 to drive into another zone or drive round the congested ringroad. Permits please or cough up the cash for the council.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

Online shopping didn’t kill the high street. In fact, total household spending has exploded since 1995, and 70% of household budgets are still spent in physical stores. The internet didn't steal existing trade; it grew the entire economic pie by letting busy people shop at any hour of the day.

The real damage to the high street was caused by local council & government policy to get all vehicles out of our town and city centres.

And physical shops cannot compete when out-of-town retail parks get free parking while town centres restrict car access.

If we want our high streets to thrive, we must make them accessible again to everyone, no matter how they travel.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@rowlandsbb @FT Yep - put free parking back on High Streets too and we would be fine…

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@EverymanSmith @FT Well said. It’s not rocket science…

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@CrookRanald @FT Well said. High streets can easily compete with retail parks if they had the accessible and free parking too.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

That would be true if it was a level playing field.

But it’s not - Supermarkets and retails parks have accessible free parking.

Reverse mass pedestrianisation and give all high streets free and accessible parking and high streets would be fine.

Take a look at any High Street in the UK that still has on-street parking and you see they are bucking the downward trend.

Solution is so simple but I see many analysts like yourself blaming public choice when government policy for over 30 years has been to deliberately make it as difficult as possible for the public to get to their local high street by car.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

His point is that the high streets are dying because of supermarket and online shopping.

My point is this is a misunderstanding of the economic situation.

There is enough household spending to go round - high streets can easily compete and have enough trade to thrive - but not without accessible and free parking.

Everyone is agreement that cars in towns and cities are a bad thing.

No-one in power seems to recognise the enormous economic cost this has had for community High Streets.

Meanwhile out of town centres and supermarkets are still continually given planning permission for free car parks.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@Stix8886 @cjsnowdon There’s plenty of spending to support the high streets out of this. But only if it is a level playing field. Shops and businesses need accessible and free parking.

As all supermarkets and megacorps in out of town units know very well indeed.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@Phoenix4419 @cjsnowdon I know that because I’ve been a high street retailer for 25 years and there’s not many high streets I haven’t visited. The origin story of all High streets is passing trade.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

Supply and demand sets the rent prices. And renting a shop has never been cheaper.

The problem is high streets no longer have accessible and free parking. And no cars = no shops.

Doesn’t matter how cheap the rent is if shoppers who travel by car ( overwhelmingly the demographic with both spare time and spare money) can’t access the shops.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@cjsnowdon Please visit any high street in the UK that still has free on-street parking. They are all thriving without exception and bucking the downward trend.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

This is incorrect. Internet shopping has not killed the high street.

Household spending has ballooned since the launch of online retail. The economic pie is far bigger.

And 70% of this bigger retail spending pie is still made in person. The belief that the internet killed the high street is a red herring I’m afraid.

The high street can easily survive alongside online and out of town megacorps but only when given a level playing field.

High streets have been deliberately put at an economic disadvantage to the supermarkets & OOTs by government policy going back over 30 years of mass pedestrianisation and removing as much free and accessible car parking facilities as possible.

It is not the public who killed the high street. it’s the public servants.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@NormaCohen3 Nope, he needs to welcome cars back into the struggling high streets.

Very very simple solution that no politician wants to even consider as an option.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@forwardnotback https://t.co/xPKgb7dj4C

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

This is incorrect, the public didn’t give up on High Streets willingly.

They were deliberately discouraged out by 30 years of policies to make vehicle access to our high streets as difficult, costly and inconvenient as possible.

Whilst simultaneously approving planning permission to hundreds and thousands of out of town retail centres with free parking.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@RichParkerLab Do you believe we should be welcoming cars back to struggling High Streets or not?

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@UKHospKate One hour free parking in the high street. Scrap mass pedestrianisation of our towns and cities.

Pedestrianisation means no footfall on the rainy days. And the UK is a very rainy country.

[Mike Lloyd @michael_a_lloyd]

This is certainly true of my local town centre. Shoppers act rationally in economic transactions, if it's cheaper, easier to shop out of town or online then that's what they will do. If town centres are considered important then create a level playing field.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@michael_a_lloyd Exactly 👏 In many ways convenience/accessibility trumps all else.

For ladies, choosing a destination that has access to safe and clean toilet facilities comes a very close second.

Australia has done incredible research on the economic cost of poor toilet facilities.

[The High Street Diaries @HighStreetDiary]

@DarrenJohnson66 No imagination needed - solution couldn’t be more simple.

Put the free parking back on the high streets and we’ll be fine 👍