One of our regular readers has pointed us in the direction
of an interview with a certain Malcolm Fraser. Mr Fraser is an architect and he was chosen to
chair the Scottish Government’s National Review of Town Centres.
Mr Fraser states: “We’ve had 60 or 70 years of believing that driving yourself
around in a metal box from suburb to business park to out of town shopping
centre represented the brave new future for our built environment. But it
disconnects you from the world. And then we spend our holidays going to places
where we feel the community and the richness and where we are able to walk to
the park or the beach. Why can’t we live like that all year round?”
We are lucky enough to live in such a place as Macolm Fraser
describes so compared to some towns we start with a lot of advantages. What can
we do to keep it like that and improve upon the situation however? Well we can
shop in the town centre. That might not be enough though, the face of retail is
changing rapidly with increasing numbers purchasing from the comfort of their
armchairs and the shopping centres of the big city next door will always be a
seductive draw for many. Up until now there has been a steady stream of contenders
willing to take on empty shops in Nairn. If this trend were to change, what
could we do to keep our town centre alive? Refreshingly, Malcolm Fraser sees the answer in”bottom-up”
change coming from communities: “We also want to avoid a top-down attitude,
parachuting into communities and telling them what to do,” he says.
Malcolm Fraser talks about encouraging young people to move
into town centres and has some innovative ideas on that. “Community Assets” is
another phrase he uses: “We want to bring estate agents with vacant properties
together with community groups to find new ways to fill them.” Planning changes
and rate reforms are another priority for him in aiding struggling town
centres.
The interview with Malcolm Fraser is available on the
NewStart website and is a must read for all those interested in how such
initiatives could be put into action locally. More here.
Our correspondent has read the interview and states :”It's a
pity that there seems to be so little of this imaginative thinking in our part
of the country.”
One could indeed be forgiven for thinking that the past
twenty-plus years have seen a succession of top-down thinking emanating from
the powers that be in Inverness with little room for local creativity to thrive.
Will that all change now however? We
have a new administration in Glenurquhart Road that has demonstrated
enlightened thinking on the Sandown debt issue. Noises promoting localism are
coming from Holyrood. We have a new Community Group on the starting blocks too
- 2013 is make or break time for NICE,
they are ready to flex their organisational muscle in redeveloping the old
social work buildings – will it come to anything though? Will they find the
funding to continue? River Community
Council are also exploring initiatives that might help create employment in the
Community. Exciting times perhaps but there
is a lot of work to be done yet.
3 comments:
Town centres up and down the country are looking for solutions to fill the decaying and boarded up shops as retail on the High street continues to decline year by year
To be brutal surviving shops will be those that sell goods that are expensive or impractical to buy online
So on thinking about Nairn High Street what are we left with in terms of businesses that might survive, cafes and takeaways come to mind but not much else. Our hotels and bars are near empty for most of the day and several are up for sale
Tourists and the older generation tend to be those that you see shopping on the High Street
Just how many cafes and takeaways can the High Street support?
Many of the shops are unsuitable for residential use so it's unlikely we'll see new flats as the shops close.
Imaginative use of shop spaces maybe, or will landlords prefer to see them boarded up in the hope that retail will one day return to the High street
There is certainly no shortage of takers for empty shops in Nairn, but I wonder as to how much longer the footfall will support such ventures?
Put a shop's contents online and your customer base is the world.
Interesting times!
What interests me is how success will be measured.
I think Nairn has a good selection of shops: the model shop, bike shop, craft shop, specialist florists, delis, bakers, butchers plus lots more.
Obviously there are those who think it's down on its **** but , as has been said before, take a good look elsewhere before you judge Nairn.
I think we have a good mix of independent and multiple retailers.
Fair enough, you can't buy everything but which town in the UK with a population of less than 10,000 provides it's residents with a retail nirvana?......
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