Councils at all levels have been struggling with the survival of their high streets for the last three decades.
Various Government initiatives, Regional Development Agencies and more recently Local Enterprise Partnerships have been regularly engaged in this battle to ensure the bottom is missed during their reign.
With our high streets almost closed down and hundreds of people who have sunk their savings into creating a small niche market for themselves have been out on social media feeling they will never get back to recouping the losses they have suffered due to the world-wide pandemic that is Covid 19.
There is some light on the horizon for these traders, the fantastically clever Dr. Chris Smith, senior virologist at Cambridge University explained to the nation that it’s very difficult to catch Covid 19 outdoors!
So the question Councils must find the answer too is, what if we turn our local shopping outlets onto the street until public safety can be ensured through the production of a vaccine?
To those reading this, it sounds really easy, as most of us have experienced card payments via mobile phone when purchasing clothes or shoes at our local markets,and have had to queue civilly on the same markets when buying fruit and veg or meat, sweets or dried goods, almost but unknowingly practising social distancing. But Councils move in mysterious ways and thinking progressively or outside the box isn’t high on their list of priorities.
Thinking outside the box’, whats that got to do with shopping in the open air? we laymen hear you ask. In the world of beadledom selling your wares in front of your property is the sharp intake of breath you expect from second hand car salesmen, for Councils its ‘Street Trading’, a function that needs licensing and inspecting and can build up the number of staff in your department if your paid on a responsibility allowance basis.
Trading on the empty squares that were once full of people in our town centres is ‘Market Trading’ a function that has been much maligned through bureaucracy and even more Red Tape than a Holy Roman Emperor can shake a wobbly stick at. Councils talk of charters and distancing and how you can’t trade within xxx miles of a charter market and in many cases they have been like that since the Magna Carta was signed.
The Councils at every level who get this right will win the race to save their high streets, those who don’t need to bulldoze the empty shops and bus people out to the successful areas.
Unless Councils begin a massive shift immediately, work rapidly and together to deliver safe outdoor experiences for the time being without looking back in anger coveting their old ways we never know, we may all experience a feeling shift and gain an impression that value for money is being delivered for our Council Tax and Business Rate payments.
Come on Councils, forget regeneration and think your way towards getting this nation safely through 2020-2021 financial year and beyond without doing more damage to our centres of commerce than the pandemic.
