Wisbech's Fake Shop Frontage

By Wisbech People | Friday, June 18, 2010, 10:32

I'm sure we have all been aware of the fake shop frontages that have been painted along some of the empty shops in our town. I am undecided whether they are a good thing or a bad thing. Yes they cover up the emptiness of the buildings and add a little bit of colour to an otherwise neglected outlet but what is it saying about our town? We can't even keep any sort of shop alive, whether it be a discount shop, a sandwich shop or otherwise.

The "Toy Shop" and "Flower Shop"
The "Butchers" hiding a multitude of sins.
Close Up of Sponsorship Label

I suppose sometimes it is better to fake it. What do you think to them?

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Comments

Trying to have an intelligent conversation with Mr RJdodds is like hand feeding a lion in a safari park....

By 8ubble8oy at 23:45 on 24/06/10
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@rjd007 You didn't pay the council anything to do the work. The paint was donated and volunteers did the work. If you're going to criticise - at least try and get the facts right! I don't know what an "imagrint" is - which is good since it sounds like a pretty unpleasant comment, all-in-all.

By Cllr Steve Tierney at 21:24 on 24/06/10
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Why do you think that? How is fake shop frontages their fault?

By Wisbech People at 21:05 on 24/06/10
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who ever says they like it needs there head lookin at its **** and we pay the council to ad fake windows to ex shops :( i blame them imagrints

By rjd007 at 20:54 on 24/06/10
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I think they are better than gaping empty shops - but it does nothing to solve our core problem. Where the shops are habitable - they are too expensive (rent and rates) for small businesses to make a living.

I'd like to see a policy which let local councils determine a "retail protected area". This would be an area which the people of the town felt was worth protecting as a retail environment - like a town center. Within the retail protected area I would do two things with business rates. On the one hand I'd make those already paying small business reduced rates pay no rates at all. On the other, I'd charge a large premium on premises which weren't trading. The consequence would be to encourage speculative property owners who were keeping property as an investment to, at least, rent out their shops at low rates to people who would trade (in order to avoid the high rates themselves). These low rental rates coupled with zero business rates would make shops viable and encourage a busy town square. On top of this I'd relocate the one-stop shop and the post office to the market square to increase footfall in the area.

By Cllr Steve Tierney at 23:41 on 18/06/10
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