A Real High Street

Monday 4th February

Many people have bewailed the death of the High Street, the awful unanimity of chains like Boots and Tesco Metro or mobile phone shops or estate agents squeezing out local bakers butchers and greengrocers.  Or out of town behemoths, the stultifying boredom of sheds like B. & Q, Carpetright and Halfords, and the massive messy Sainsbury’s and Asda, where you have to wade through aisle after aisle of homewares and bargain books to get to buy a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and then queue up for half an hour to pay, or face the nightmare of the self-service tills where ‘unexpected item in bagging area’ starts to drive you mad – ‘no there isn’t an unexpected item, it was the one I just scanned and which you have added to my bill already.’

So how do we rescue the old high street we all remember and love.  I think that local councils have to play their part, free parking, low business rates for independents, even putting pressure on landlords who would rather see empty boarded up shops than lower their sky-high rents.  Also a local community prepared to actually shop is essential, and if that means encouraging some high street winners like M. & S. or Wilkinson’s to modernize their shops then that is also part of solution too.

We have been to both Clacton and Frinton this weekend and both high streets are thriving; Clacton is admittedly a bit more downmarket, but it does have a Boots, a Wilkinson and a WH Smith and a small M. & S. where surprisingly with less choice you actually find something to buy. There are a few charity shops but no empty boarded up shops at all.  Frinton even has a real butcher and a fishmonger and two bakers, and a few independent quirky shops too.  So, there is demand out there, and despite their being a plethora of large supermarkets just out of town, it seems that people, at least in this corner of Essex like the ritual of walking down the high street and visiting all the shops and buying a loaf here, some sausages there and a second hand book all from different shops.

The High Street has to adapt and change to peoples needs, but it doesn’t have to die….at least not for a few years yet.