| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Another Turn Of The Screw For Chiswick Retailers? | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 24/03/19 08:23:00 |
| You can theoretically use Sainsbury's car park for 'stop and shop'. Under the covenant which Sainsbury's operate it they were obliged to offer some free parking and it is free for the first 20 or 30 minutes. In practice the hassle of getting in and out and the time it takes to get to the High Road means that nobody uses it in this way. The alternative is to spend £10 in Sainsbury's and that gives you two hours free provided you leave the supermarket shop until the end. Once your parking has been validated you have 15 minutes to get out. Everybody is going to be cautious about getting a big fine for overstaying so really you need to think in terms of an hour and a half free parking. That gives you under an hour on the High Road if you are just going to spend the minimum at the self serve in the supermarket to get parking validation. This isn't doesn't really give enough time to shop on streets like Turnham Green Terrace and Devonshire Road where a lot of our independent traders are. The requirement to spend a certain amount at Sainsbury's means that in many cases money that might have been spent in independent stores is spent there so the supermarket giant has a significant competitive advantage. Basically it is impractical to drive to Chiswick for a shopping trip lasting more than two hours and impractical to make a shorter trip where you spend a higher proportion with independent stores. For this reason people tend to drive to Westfield (despite very high parking charges) or Kew retail park. Even if Brentford only has an extra 150 parking spaces that would make it another potential destination if all the development taking place was accompanied by a significant improvement in retail offerings. Chiswick retail faces a huge number of challenges over the next few years, including higher business rates, high vacancy rates, disruption from CS9, a significant reduction in public transport provision and an uncertain economic background. Combined with a local authority which seems unsympathetic and sees it as a policy goal to discourage people driving to shops in the area it is hard to see any reason to be optimistic. The only one that I can think of is the growing understanding in the community that local independent companies need to be actively patronised if we want them to survive. |