Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

What's the new store being built on there opposite Evans Halshaw

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

There was a very nice looking CSL furniture store there when I drove past the other day.

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

Was that at the side of Whitebirke Drive?

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

Come off the roundabout and its on your right at the first set of lights

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

What's your point?

Hyndburn councillors burying their heads in the sand thinking that a retail park will hurt local traders more than their poor planning, their intransigence on what their voters want. Removal of benches, lack of community policing. Claims that this retail park will affect local traders, whilst pushing a rapid transport scheme that will push anyone with half a brain away from the bombsite that is Accrington town centre.

Or is it Ken Moss..pushing for an out of town shopping centre along the canal at Rishton, more difficult to get to than Whitebirk by any form of transport except Bettys Taxis!

The days of catching a bus to town, getting your weekly shopping, lugging five or six brown paper carrying bags with string handles cutting the blood supply to your fingertips and waiting under a rain driven bus shelter is consigned to history, and only the muppets in council can't see it.

Accrington missed the boat when they built the Arndale...they already had the makings of a retail park...i.e. a massive central car park....if they had developed around it..the town would have been so different. Instead they built the white elephant Arndale, the only use of which is the high roof for setting off fireworks at Christmas!

I've been to Whitebirk today..from pulling up, buying what I needed and driving off..less than 10 minutes...also been to Tesco in Accrington..potholes, double parking under the railway bridge on Blackburn Road, taxi drivers ignoring give way signs etc..etc..

The council could deal with Peel Holdings..put on free transport, ensure their are adequate units for local traders etc..etc...

But they simply don't want to play...they believe the (non-existent) town centre is the way to go..Muppets!

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

That's the one I'm thinking about. It must be a replacement for the old store at the back of it.

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

Where do you get your ideas, Guiness? Seriously?

An out of town shopping centre along the canal at Rishton? Where and when have I said that? There is a world of difference between holistic thinking on new developments along the canal and a shopping centre.

And it still amazes me how much people talk down Accrington and then wonder why big businesses won't come here in droves. I love Accy, I shop there every week and I can get pretty much any service I need, it has never let me down. Over the past 12 months I have had repairs to my Hoover, my amplifier and my phone, found some wonderfully cheap and high quality foodstuffs on the markets and countless other things that I have been able to find easily when I have needed them. The only negative point would be a lack of clothes shops but Clare Pritchard works her socks off for that town centre and it is improving all the time.

As a member of the local authority, my feeling is that local businesses must come first before the profits of development companies. If the retail park at Whitebirk went ahead it would have a serious impact on what is already in place around the whole borough so on the one hand people would be delighted at somewhere new to shop and then up in arms because the council aren't supporting local businesses.

You simply can't have it both ways.

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

I first went to Rovers in 73 but started regularly in 78 and had a season ticket up to 94. Couldn't afford between 94-2000 so went occasionally. Had a season ticket since 2000.

My dad is from Mill Hill and at the time like many my age only had Burnley and Rovers to choose. All my friends similarly are Rovers fans and we still go as lifelong friends. Stanley's demise did lead to a generation going elsewhere. My uncle was an apprentice when they went bust. Rovers took him on briefly.

I try to get to Stanley. I always go when I can and always pay as a poi for principle even though I know the previous owners well.

Stanley tend to pair off their fixtures with Rovers sadly and mid weeks are impossible. I reckon I get to about 10 games a season.

Out of town retail parks hit town centre spend. Accrington is struggling. It will take many years before it turns around but it will and we can accelerate that by having a long term view.

That view is to;

Have many more people living in the town centre
Reduce the edge of town shops and overall numbers
Improve transport links
Focus on being a market town and the great heritage
Build the market hall up so people come from further afield
Move from general to bespoke, retail to leisure retail

Slow progress is being made on all of those.

Graham

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

And this, kids, is why you turn down the spice girls while you're doing your hoovering, and make sure your phone is safely on a high shelf.

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

It's like being in the twilight zone...Elected representatives banging on about a rosy future and bustling town centres with quaint shops that repair hoovers and phones.

Unfortunately we live in a throwaway society, its often cheaper to get a new phone/hoover than repair it, besides which it takes less time and stress to nip over to currys than negotiate access to the town centre lumping a ruddy great vacuum cleaner through the streets.

As for the market...situated in a wind tunnel, surrounded by pools of water when it rains.....give me a nice dry Tesco anytime.

Of the countless other things you have been able to find when you needed them....Can I ask where in Accrington town centre you bought the last piece of music you listened to, the last book you read, the last toy you gave to your child/grandchild, the computer you are using, the watch on your wrist, the wallet in your pocket, the shoes on your feet or even the last tin of baked beans you ate?

You really believe its people talking down Accrington and not the disastrous planning by successive councils for the last 30 years that keeps big shops away? :eek:

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

To make the town centre viable again all they have to do is transport Maundy Grange to Whitebirk, problem solved:rolleyes:

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

Whitebirke is not far enough away for Maundy.

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

Whilst put cynically, it is fair representation of the challenges. Internet shopping, ease and comfort of supermarkets, business rates, non payment of tax by Amazon etc..

Accrington has simply lost it's way over the last few decades.

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

It is for me Frank I don't go there:)

Re: Whitebirk Retail Park
 

It didn't lose its way...it was steered over a cliff by daft decisions and blinkered thinking by successive councils. It now lies rusted and wrecked beyond repair on the rocks below.

Stopping development of Whitebirk is also a daft decision and blinkered thinking.