Long St Window Row
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 by Geoff Wilding
Traders have accused NWBC of petitioning them to have new windows installed at a jewellers shop on Long St. removed.
One of these traders wrote to The Recorder complaining of the actions allegedly carried out by planning officials.
The letter to The Recorder read as follows.
I run a carpet shop in Atherstone. I would like to rent another shop, for the last four months I may of well been speaking to a brick wall! Atherstone is looking really run down, lots of empty shops and no encouragement to rent these shops. My postman called this morning complaining about the amount of mail sent from the council.
I had eight letters all the same! The contents: Ather-stone council V Gold and Silver Investments. A busi-ness that has been running for a long time is now being picked on because the coun-cil don’t like his new win-dows and want the Long Street traders to petition to have them removed. I really think they should get priorities sorted.”
Mrs Robinson, Arcade Carpets.
Officials at The Council issued the following statement in reply to the accusations. Jeff Brown, Head of Development Control in the Borough Council’s Planning team explained the situation:
Firstly, we’d like to support the views of this trader about Long Street. It does indeed need to be kept vibrant and attractive for traders, residents and visitors. Atherstone is suffering from the current downturn just as many other small market town centres are. The Borough Council does not own all the premises in Long Street and whilst we can encourage the owners to review rents, for example, that is a matter for the owner.
Regarding the issue of replacement plastic windows at the jewellers. Long Street’s major strength is its heritage, which is why the area is a ‘Designated Conservation Area.’ This is designed to protect the historic appearance of the buildings and discourage features such as plastic window frames. We have not launched a petition, as your letter states. In this particular case, the shop owner has lodged an appeal with the Secretary of State and we have a legal duty to notify neighbours of that appeal.
However, we can only apologise if this shop owner has received more than one letter.
The Borough Council does run a grant scheme to improve shop fronts in Atherstone and work is about to start on several properties in Long Street. Unfortunately, when we intro-duced the scheme a little while ago, property owners seems reluctant to grasp the opportuni-ty to have money to improve their property.We have put a lot of effort into persuading peo-ple to change their minds, and this is now hav-ing an impact.
The Council is not the only player in the fu-ture of Long Street, and we do need to find a balance between the appearance of the street and its viability. This is why all owners and occupiers are urged to talk to the Council be-fore they start any works to their premises. This will avoid any misunderstandings as demonstrated by the letter sent to your paper.
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Pat October 15th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Atherstone town has been going downhill for a long time, not just during this downturn in the economy.
We need the sort of shops to encourage customers. We seem to have good parking so come Atherstone Council lets have some good shops. A decent health food shop, would be nice.
Ladies wear and accessories, not forgetting the male population of Atherstone, – Middle priced . A decent shoe shop. I remember when there was one opposite Dillons. We have a good bus service too. Not everyone wants to go to Nuneaton or Tamworth.
melvyn hopkins October 17th, 2009 at 3:29 am
I totally agree however, I believe the shop rents are quite restrictive in Atherstone. The town council have a long term strategy to bring prosperity into the town through a number of avenues. Watch this space!
Geoff Wilding November 3rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Ok Pat, we would all like to see more occupied and different shops in the town. However I fail to see what you expect the council to do. Incidentally there is no such authority as “Atherstone Council”. It is ” North Warwickshire Borough Council” and they own only a small amount of shop premises in Atherstone.
The “Atherstone Town Council” an entirely separate body and have only limited powers of recommendation in these matters. They are not the major landlord. That power lies elsewhere.
Local authorities can only control the type of outlet by planning rules (fast food etc), they cannot determine economic rents of retail premises.
Atherstone suffers like many other small market towns from adjacent out of town centres, in our case Nuneaton and Tamworth. Only when shoppers vote with their feet and spend locally can the situation improve. A classic “chicken and egg” situation.
A Grant November 25th, 2009 at 11:43 am
i some times go to Atherstone, i do agree that it is run down. the anwser is to have a large store e.g. ASDA. this could atract us from the stockingford area
b richard December 28th, 2009 at 4:35 am
I would just like to say that.having lived in Atherstone .some 41 yrs….I find it appalling that the shops are left empty! as long as i can remember .traders in the arcade have been grossly over charged rents etc…..always being empty.
its time the council stopped trying to do silly dickens nights etc and concentrated on the core issue of bad trade! make the shops affordable and the tenants will come.thus attracting custom.!
simon walker December 31st, 2009 at 12:04 am
the window can not be that ugly, as i have not noticed it,i realise that we are in a conservation belt but if you look at some of the windows around town they look like they might just fall out,dont just look at eye level there some danger 1 floor up in places we have some great buildings but over 50% need some major TLC and that costs
it must be better to have a safe and secure window than an empty building due to the fact the owner/landlord could not afford hand crafted top of the range windows,to keep the council happy,but do not forget the extra wide window sill for the chip papers and cartons at the weekend but that another sore subject,
anyway going to finnish my coffee and take a look at this window that all the fuss is about ,if i am wrong and its really ugly i will apologise thank-you simon
Geoff Wilding January 2nd, 2010 at 2:26 am
Re B Richard comment
The council have nothing to do with your so called “silly” Dickens night. This is a voluntary enterprise and does much to enhance the town.
Please check your facts before making false equally “silly ” comments.
b richard January 14th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
re Geoff Wilding: silly comments
apologies Geoff.my mistake…..I stand corrected on that…but even so…..my point is far from silly..you have to agree .that the shops seem to struggle all too easy.
but I still stand by my opinion on Dickens Night.
Its not like this is Broadstairs after all…where is our Bleak House?
Rockey February 24th, 2010 at 7:15 am
I have lived and worked in Atherstone for many years and I would love to open a retail outlet in here. I am just aware that if I rent a shop in Atherstone that the rental would be way to high as I just wouldn’t get the foot fall. Something has gone wrong with Atherstone Town Centre and maybe the reason for the decline is attributed to by many things. Does Mr Lloyd still own many of the retail outlets and flats in the area? But this is the past and we have to make the best of now and the future, so what can we actively do about our town and what are the council actively doing to promote us and revive us? How can we lift our town out this depression and bring it back to the honest yet glorious market town once again?
Dawn Hart March 20th, 2010 at 3:59 am
I am writing with reference to Pat’s comments in October 2009. Amitayus Wellbeing at 189 Long Street was founded in April 2008 and since then we have tried to accommodate the needs of our local community and in March 2009 we established a health food section in the reception of our premises, we try to cover a broad range of needs and will try and get in the more unsual health products on special order when we can. We try to keep our prices as low as possible and offer OAP’s a 10% dsicount. Has Pat tried us?
Len Hunt March 24th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Atherstone is a lovely little town. I was born there many moons ago, and as soon as the chance arises I shall move back there again. Of course it is not perfect, tell me a place that is. Look around at other adjacent towns and you will find worse than Atherstone. To me it is a town as near to being ideal as it possibly can, and probably viewed in the same way by the majority of residents. Do not be so quick to decry this town, it has many good things going for it. Open your eyes and see the good things around, and retailers if you are not doing so well, maybe there is a reason for it apart from the town itself.
Ray April 28th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Reply to b richard ref Dickens night
Dickens night is run by a committee of volenteers not the council, has been going for well over 20 years and attracts some 12 thousand people into our town on the last saturday of November each year and i have already had many enquiries about the 2010 event. If you can class this as a silly event then come in november and see for yourself 12 thousand people cannot be wrong.