TWO borough councils that led town centre regeneration works helped their retailers by unleashing a wealth of support including free parking.
Shoppers in Old Town in Hemel Hempstead and in Eltham in Greenwich were given incentives to come into their respective towns as part of a package put together by their respective civic leaders.
And businesses also received grants of up to £5,000 while the shopping destinations receiving advertising paid for by the councils.
Support was given by Dacorum Borough Council during works to renovate the Old Town in Hemel Hempstead during 2013/14 and by Greenwich council last year. Now retailers in Wokingham are calling on the borough council to do similar schemes here – with some retailers warning they face a bleak future unless something happens soon.
As we have previously reported, footfall in Wokingham’s town centre has plummeted during regeneration works around Market Place but the borough council has said that it won’t consider lifting any restrictions on parking in its car parks as its usage is up on previous years.
During this phase, Denmark Street has been closed to traffic and the market moved to Erftstadt Court. This week, the focus switched to the small section of Broad Street opposite the town hall and will last until Christmas.
All retailers will be open as normal during the works and the message from them is to keep on shopping in Wokingham – but they also want support from the borough council.
Cllr Lindsay Ferris, leader of Wokingham’s Liberal Democrats, feels that WBC should be doing more to help retailers.
“I’m exasperated that the council doesn’t seem to care or have any ideas. They seem clueless. There’s no imagination, they are only interested in their revenue streams because they borrow too much.
“They do not seem to want to help traders– they need help and they need it now or else they won’t be there when the regeneration is finished.”
But Wokingham Borough Council says it is already doing enough to help retailers.
Cllr Stuart Munro, Executive Member for Business and Economic Development and Regeneration, said: “In recognition of a thriving town centre in the long-term, the council is investing in these works to help economic prosperity.
“Not only will the Regeneration deliver a town centre that residents deserve, with improved shops, entertainment and facilities, it will also generate more than 900 new jobs for the town, and create an independent source of income that could be used to fund council services and projects for years to come.
“However, we recognise this is a difficult time for Wokingham as we work hard to improve the town centre.
“We’re continuing to work closely with Wokingham Town Council and the Business Association to monitor the impact of development across the area and look at ways to support the town and local businesses.
“We urge people to continue to support the town over the coming months.
“From talking with a variety of businesses over the years we don’t believe that a ‘one size fits all’ handout is the best solution. As the lowest funded unitary authority in the country, this kind of support would have a huge impact on our ability to fund vital services such as social care across the borough.
“Our car park charges continue to remain competitive and offer visitors good value for money, significantly lower than our larger neighbours and comparable with other similar market towns in the area.
“This is reinforced by the fact that car park ticket sales continue to rise year-on-year showing that people are coming into the town centre. However, whilst some retailers tell us they are benefiting from this growth and have seen better than usual trading figures over the summer, we recognise that this is not the case across the board.
“As such we believe we should be focusing our limited resources on supporting campaigns and initiatives that raise awareness of the great businesses in Wokingham and encouraging local people to support them.
“There have been some great ideas come forward and we’ve been working with the Town Council and Business Association to further develop and implement them as part of a proper marketing strategy for the town centre.
“As a Council we’ve also been putting our resources into helping local businesses find out about and access support which is already available to them, such as the recent meeting with specialist advisers to talk businesses through the business rates relief process and how best to claim reductions.”
