Support

High Streets & Traders need support on many different fronts. We need customers to be able to park easily and without charge for 4 hours at a time. We also need customers to be able to pull up outside the door to load heavy or awkward items without fear of a parking ticket. We need councils to relax rules and their money making schemes on outside displays. This would make the street scene more interesting. We need business rates to be a fair proportion of sales/profits. We need something to be done about professional national charity shops not paying any rates. These shops are now in competition with other businesses but have a huge financial advantage. No one wants to stop the local charity having a store but the other 'charity' operators need to work on a level playing field. We don’t need multiple street traders opening up and cherry picking items to sell cheaply whilst they have no real overheads. We need the Police to take shoplifting seriously as a crime, to prosecute and protect businesses from this theft. We need it to be easier to get change of use so a greengrocer can become a Cafe. We need good local public transport links so customers can hop onto a bus and 'nip into town' knowing it will not be an hour wait for the next bus. We need restrictions on the continuing drive for more shopping centres if something new is being built that will impact on a local high street then as part of granting planning permission find a way to purchase the soon to be destroyed High Street at no cost to the taxpayer and convert this area into much needed housing preventing it become another empty High Street thereby allowing the local trader the opportunity to relocate when the ‘Heart’ of a Town moves. We need pressure on Landowners to ensure they make every effort to let a property at a realistic rent, many landowners will not take a lower rent for fear of down valuing their estate so they keep units empty or charity shops.

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