Quote:
Originally Posted by Alvin the chipmunk
A little of both. A town with high unemployement and perpetual low earners in a the middle of a recession with no industry to speak of is always going to struggle to maintain major high street chains.
Towns such as Leigh and Bury have been mentioned on here but Accy can't compete with these as they benefit from the Greater Manchester effect.
Although as I understand it the rents for the Arndale and Broadway are absolutely outrageous.
Perhaps the answer is for Manchester to become part of Greater Accrington?  |
Not having that at all...
There was nothing wrong with the town before the planners and councillors started mucking about with it.
No need for the Arndale, no need to destroy the outdoor market, no need to move the bus station.
We had a perfectly adequate massive car park close to the heart of the town, just like Skipton, Fleetwood and Bury. We had a variety of market stalls, just like Skipton, Fleetwood and Bury. We had an olde worlde market hall with a plethora of specialist stalls, just like Skipton, Bury and Fleetwood (ok so Skipton is just a covered arcade). We had a choice of fish stalls, tripe stalls, cooked meat stalls like the others.
And unlike those mentioned our market was covered by a bleedin' great see through roof that kept the rain off and still allowed you to see without the need for electric lighting.
Now we have a multi storey that sensible people don't use because it only takes one poor driver to bring the whole car park to a standstill, a market in a wind tunnel where you cant browse without getting thumped in the back or sodden wet through in a spring shower, a white elephant market hall that has a bottleneck entrance on one side, has been totally ruined inside and drunks, drug users and beggars accosting you on the other side, a council that removes seats for old folk to rest their weary bones, uneven pavements that become lakes after rain, a complete lack of town centre cleaning crews and to top it all off they plan to move the bus station to a non-central position....
People always need to buy things...regardless of recession or lack of industry. Big names will not come here because the council have slowly and surely killed the town centre over the last 30 years, nothing to do with recession/industry (Blackburn,Bury, Skipton and Fleetwood have the same recession/industry issues)....and they will nail the coffin shut when they move the bus station too far away from the market for Florrie, Ada and Bertha to walk to the tripe stall because these three ladies are the only ones left who still do their shopping in the town centre.
Then they have the unmitigated cheek to say 'building Whitebirk up will have a detrimental effect on the town centre' and 'lets build a canalside shopping centre in Rishton.'