Following Comet, Jessops and HMV, today Blockbusters have gone into administration and this leads to the question “who next”. Many towns and cities have empty shops and our small shopping centre has a number boarded up and for sale. Talking to one of the local tradesmen the other day he told me that he has to work for three days a week just to cover the cost of his rent and rates before any other expenses. At times he said he wondered why he bothered. Both rent and rates have increased to such an extent that what was a very thriving shopping centre is declining. Now our local authority, Havering, is “consulting” about introducing parking charges on what, at present, is the free car park for shoppers and visitors to the library. Not only that they also want to introduce restrictions on side roads to prevent parking there as well.
The proposed charges are 20p for the 1st hour, then £1.40 for 1hour 30 minutes and £2 for two hours. There are Newspaper shops in the shopping area; who is going to pay 20p to collect a daily newspaper? If you need to go to the hairdresser or the optician it is going to be at least an hour and a half.
I foresee many of our local shops being forced out of business by a greedy council who sees motorists as the milch cow. We should value local businesses; many of whom provide excellent service and also employment instead of putting so many insurmountable obstacles in their way
Here in Redbridge it was reported that a staggering £2.7-millions of parking fines remains unpaid. The current consultation for this year's budget includes a proposal to "provide" an additional 250 on-street pay & display parking bays in order to raise an additional £160,000 revenue.
ReplyDeleteThus a council so incompetent that £2.7-millions has not been collected is proposing to raise £160,000 in extortion fees.
Such breathtaking greed and incompetence should be suitably rewarded at the 2014 council elections. Is it perhaps significant that the leaders of both councils are bosom buddies?
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ReplyDeleteI've had to remove this comment because of the identification of a trader.
ReplyDeleteWhat Steve wrote, omitting the identification bit was "Not sure about Comet, but the failure of Jessops, HMV and Blockbusters are down to the inexorable march of technology. Particularly in the case of the last two, the internet has been what is known as a "disruptive technology" - an invention that causes a major upheaval in the way people think. The same thing happened with farriers, saddlers and horse-drawn carriage manufacturers, not long after the invention of the internal combustion engine.
ReplyDelete!!!
ReplyDeleteWere you told to remove the post because it suggested that a well-known company might not be long for this world if the current advances in technology continue?
If so, that is unbelievably Draconian. I have absolutely no internal knowledge of the company in question at all. I was merely making a prediction based on the fact that consumers increasingly purchase the type of goods that this company sells in a way that is markedly different from this company's mode of operation. It is a prediction based on the facts I know. It may be wrong.
If someone has "leaned" on you because of my comment then i) I apologise, and ii) I really despair for the future of humanity.
In support of Father Jennings I have to say that he, as the blog owner, has a responsibility in law to ensure that anything published on his blog is neither libellous nor othersie potentially damaging. If it is then he too becomes liable in law and could have an order made against him for financial recompense.
DeleteQuite so. Sorry, I thought I made it clear that I didn't hold the blog owner responsible. My incredulity is directed at the mentality behind the threat that caused the post to be removed. I am so bemused by the whole affair that I'm almost tempted to set up my own blog containing only that post, just for the sake of contrariness.
ReplyDeleteI expect to be having dinner with a friend next week, who happens to be a solicitor who specialises in commercial law. I will ask his opinion - I suspect that he will agree that the situation is slightly barmy.