There is a big jumble sale – fund raising for the Alzheimer’s Society – on the Market Place. They have a £1 tombola with a prize every time, some cakes and preserves, and a large triangle of table tops loaded with: books, clothes, games, and an assortment of knick-knacks you will find nowhere else.
The shelves of the Bury Street Co-op are now empty apart from the day’s papers – as the shop will cease trading today 11th July.
The pedestrian lights are not working at the top of West St Helen Street. They were out of order for 6 days, then got fixed with the help of a generator – were working for Thursday and Friday, and are not working again.
I don’t know why they had two shops (The COOP) in Abingdon anyway.There do seem quite a few independent shops all selling the same sort of goods but most people use Tesco or Waitrose for their main shop as it is.Those big units being unused in the Precinct doesn’t help either.
Fingers crossed we get a Marks and Spencer’s Food Hall…(or am I just dreaming?).
An M&S Simply Food would be very nice but I doubt a sleepy backwater like Abingdon would generate enough footfall to keep one of those profitable.
On the contrary, I think an M and S (even limited to a Food Hall) would attract people into Abingdon.
Maybe Abingdon doesn’t want to be a sleepy backwater. Maybe it does. Either way, there is either a ‘department’ at the council tasked with getting Abingdon to just “tick over”. Or they are tasked with driving the town forward and on to great things. Or…there is no such department.
Whichever it may be…each is a sorry state of affairs.
We’d never get an M&S as it wouldnt appropriately reflect the towns wide demographic. And we could never have that.
Still…the team who sort the flowers are great!
One knows in retail it is very important to move with the times. A supermarket without a car park is never going to work. I went to Abingdon market today and I was limited in what fruit and veg I could buy by how much I could carry to the multistory car park. Didcot has it right. A large FLAT car park next to the supermarket where one can wheel heavy groceries straight to the car in the middle of the retail area where the 2 hours free parking allows people to then go on to shop in the smaller retail units. I thought back to when we did not have cars or online shopping. Women used to load prams and pushchairs with heaving shopping to wheel it home.
Janet – Very true, the development in Didcot almost has an American feel about it (where one would drive to the mall), my only criticism regarding the free parking is that it does not allow enough time to see a film at their council subsidised cinema (although another adjacent car park is free from 6pm onwards). Abingdon is too well established to be able to flatten an area to create something like Didcot, so if something like that were to be considered it would always be away from the present town centre unlike Didcot where they were lucky enough to be able to add to the existing centre.
A sleepy backwater? Considering I spend a great deal of time stuck in traffic trying to get from one end of Abingdon to the other due to the high volumes of cars on the road hardly suggests Abingdon is a sleepy backwater!
Does ‘Badger’ even live in Abingdon?
While we don’t actually ‘need’ an M&S or another food store for that matter (we have Waitrose, Tesco, two smaller Tescos, two Budgens) we do need better shops. We have some nice pubs. We have some good restaurants that provide a wide range of food and price, but we do need extra shops that are not necessarily the big chains. Smaller independent clothing stores, a music/DVD shop, homewares will all suffice. But the problem isn’t what’s not there, it’s what could be there and the answer sadly lays with the cost of ownership. The local authority are to blame for the continual increase in rents and rates which prevent smaller businesses from thriving. It’s great we have a FROZEN in Abingdon, surely the kids will love it this summer but will be as welcome as a wet towel come January. But still, at last someone is having a go at trying to reinvigorate Abingdon.
But….if our own residents of Abingdon refer to the town as a Sleepy Backwater then no wonder tourists give us a wide berth.
Here’s an idea. How about the local council agrees to reduce rates for new businesses and they can come in and get tourists into Abingdon and make the place so much better, boost the economy and wake the place up from it’s backwater sleep. In the meantime, residents who keep complaining on here about the state of their own town can clear off to Didcot or Wantage and complain about such a sad state of affairs from afar. Or just stay in.
My home town, a sleepy backwater in Worcestershire, is getting an M&S Food Store, but it is part of a redeveloped petrol station.
This seems to be the M&S approach to expansion – stand alone stores for large urban areas and service & petrol stations elsewhere.
If Abingdon was ever to get an M&S Food Store, this it is likely to be the same. It’s very unlikely that one would open in the town centre, especially as it is close to a Waitrose, which appeals to the same demographic.
2707 – some interesting issues you raise…but alas, where have you been….?
I’m no businessman, but I believe the main limiting factor for all the groovy inde shops we desire is the rent….not the rates…and that is down to the landlord, a private fella, who isn’t that fussed if the premises is let.
Suggestions have been put forward how we can help alleviate this. Again, alas, no interest has been shown by (in this instance The Veil council) in taking this forwards.
FROZEN is indeed to be congratulated for ‘avin a go…but they are really gonna have to up their game if they expect people to ever go in more than once. But, Darwinian theory and all that…the ‘good shops’ are the ones that will thrive here. They won’t need excuses. They’ll drive forwards despite the governing bodies, not because of them. I hope Frozen is one of them.
Tourists give us a wide birth for a number of reasons. Again, not only has a fair amount of our council tax been spent on “organising bodies to increase tourism and footfall” with out much fanfare or success (it would seem), but other, fantastic ideas have been put forwards by “the peasants” regarding how to increase footfall and tourism…with the backing of the bus companies for example…but again…deaf ears, and all that…
I have been in Abingdon for only 10 years now…but the situation hasnt changed a jot. Meanwhile Didcot and the internet have blown up around our edges, almost to the surprise of whoever is tasked with our future. I do *try* and use the town, but otherwise you are correct, I do find myself in Didcot…or online…as they often not only provide what I want to buy…but…importantly, as a working man, allow me the opportunity to buy WHEN I want.
I have every confidence that Abingdon will forge ahead with a 20th century outlook towards shopping and town centre vitality and strategic thinking (or goodness knows what)…as the 3rd decade of the 21st century waits in the wings.
And that Daniel is eloquence put eloquently. Well said.
2707 – ‘Badger’ does indeed live in Abingdon and has since the early ’70’s, given the chance I shop in the town centre and avoid the large supermarkets which have fuelled the exodus of independants from the middle of the town when possible.
During the day when most people are at work the town seems so quiet (and even on Saturdays often) reminding me very much of Wallingford after the ‘new’ bridge was built. Equally I’d bet we attract more tourists than Didcot & Wantage together due to the River/Historic town centres that they lack. The new centre of Didcot will only last so long before looking tired and the investment in Wantage will only last so long… so things will swing back in our towns favour soon.
Badger – hopefully you are correct, and Abingdon will get its turn again.
Another massively limiting factor to the towns fortunes are that any decision made concerning the town by The Veil are done so by the unelected Veil Cabinet. Before the last election there was no one on that Veil Cabinet that spoke for or represented Abingdon; or so I believe. This is why OUR town was so far down THEIR agenda. Is this still the case since the election?
Daniel – Love the play on words ref ‘the Veil’ 🙂 excellent. This ‘Cabinet’ thing has only appeared on my radar in the last few weeks and now seems to be everywhere, so much so that I’ve seen it several times on the web just today… little mini-governments everywhere?
Thanks badger…I think I have their attitude pretty well covered with that.
Everything is Veiled in secrecy.
Business rates are set by central government not the local council (https://www.gov.uk/introduction-to-business-rates/how-your-rates-are-calculated). Rent is set by the private landlords who own the property not the local council.
Good clarification there Steven. Lest we forget however, this does not make “The Veil” (and other bodies) blameless in all this….
Hmmm, that would suggest that a landlord is quite happy to charge high fees for rent and as a result end up having 1) nobody operating in that property and 2) no care what effect this has on the local community.
If this is the case, shame on them. Why have ownership of a property and not fill it sensibly for a purpose which (if done well) only increases that properties value in both monetary and reputation terms and that of the area around it for years to come?
If indeed properties integral to the future outlook of the centre of Abingdon are owned by private landlords with no such interest in anything other than owning a property where they do not need a rent income then this ‘thread’ may as well end here!
Well…safly, it likely will end here. Some points to bear in mind when trying to think like a landlord.
#First and most obvious is the reduction in annual net revenue. 50% rent reduction for one space will take 6 month to recuperate each fiscal year. This means the Landlord could leave the space vacant for as much as 18 months while looking for a fair market tenant willing to sign a 3 year lease, rather than sign a lease, only to have a space filled.
#Another result of accepting a low rent for space in, say, a multi-tenanted property is it may, in effect, lower the “normal” market rents, therefore, lowering the rent in subsequent vacancies and in some cases even existing leases. Once a rent is accepted, it often becomes known by the market in general, or the very nature of the type of tenant the Landlord accepted a low rent from will reduce the viability of the balance of the Landlords building. More knowledgeable prospective tenants will know what a certain industry is capable of paying for space. They can then deduce that rent for some tenants is significantly less.
Yet another probable effect of accepting a low rent is the overall value of the building is reduced significantly more due to the net revenue reduction, than by having a vacancy. Potential buyers/investors for the property will give more credit for a vacancies potential than the lower rents will actually realize. Investment real estate is valued based upon the quality and quantity of the net cash flow. A 40% reduction from market rents will reduce the value of the building by 40%, while a 40% vacancy in itself will not reduce the value nearly as much, unless the market is also factored into the equation. While the building may not be for sale at this time the original fact is still very relevant: A Landlord wants a return ON (income over and above his investment) and OF (sales proceeds returning the original purchase or cost) his investment.
The thing is…from our point of view, we are looking at it is punters, or shoppers. The landlord is not interested in any of the things we are interested in. It is “business”. Their motives are not our motives.
As I said…suggestions HAVE been made to help ellieviate these issues…but no interest was shown what so ever. And why would it…when thousands and thousands of pounds of tax payer money was already being spent to address these issues (without success).