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Alderley Edge traders fear a ghost town

Vic Barlow
27/ 9/2006

RETAILERS in Alderley are expressing their concern at declining trade.

Paul Rowley who co-owns Colours and Crafts in London Road has seen his sales slump by a quarter in two years. Brian Bishop manager at Alderley Village Butcher's reckons the village has only a couple of years before all the shops disappear.

The decline isn't difficult to understand: sky-high rents and a falling number of shoppers is not a formula likely to make money. While the supermarket giants and out of town retailers widen their product ranges and offer free parking our town centres increase parking charges and lose stores.

Congleton Borough Council offer free parking to encourage town centre shopping. It's not the total solution but it certainly helps. Macclesfield Borough Council's response was to build Jordangate Car Park which is so inconvenient that users need a taxi to get to the shops.

Some councils have gone to inordinate lengths to tempt shoppers into the town centre with street theatre, continental markets and special events. All MBC seem to licence are clipboard cowboys who hassle every passing shopper.

If our town centres are to have any retail presence we need an imaginative plan and that plan must come from the town hall.

Over to you councillors.

  • THE views expressed on this page are those of Vic Barlow and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Express.

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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   Could they start running a free bus service that takes people from the Jordangate Car Park and into town, via the Bus Station?
Fed Up, Macclesfield
1/10/2006 at 04:53
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