Second Busiest Weekend of the Year and They Close Our Street Again

At The Wine Shop, in Russell Street, Leek, Saturdays are busy.  Easter Saturdays are incredibly busy, so busy in fact that they are second only to December Saturdays. Busy that is unless the Town Council and, ironically, the Leek Chamber of Trade, decide to shut the street to accommodate it's very own St Georges Day celebrations.

I'm all for the town's people celebrating what ever they like, The Royal Wedding, Christmas Lights Switch on, Club Day, Leek 800, Leek Show, or St Georges Day as long as it works along side local businesses, I don't even expect the events to help local businesses but I do expect these events to avoid having a detrimental affect on the trade of local businesses at all cost.

In the last two or three weeks or so, I've been hearing more and more people commenting that it feels like this recession has only just begun and that it is going to get worse before it will get better. As a small business, we are certainly finding this to be the case. No individuals like Councillor Steve Povey or Mike Cozens, or any organisation such as the Chamber of Trade or indeed the Town Council should be allowed to ever come close to having a negative effect on it's local businesses especially in such desperate conditions.

And so, Steve Povey, Mike Cozens, the Chamber of Trade and the Town Council got their way. They closed Russell Street, and the top of Derby Street to traffic today. What for? So that an actor can ride up Derby street sat on a white horse dressed as St George, so that a man could display his owls, and a couple of local organisations could set up their fund raising stalls. These could have been shunted a few yards up the street on to the pedestrianised part of Derby Street and our one way street could have remained open. Cars could have parked, people could have ran into town shops for provisions instead of being turned away at the bottom of the street and redirected to....Morrisons...where the cars were queuing right up to the Leek Road. The very people who organised today's event protest about Sainsburys coming to town, and protest about the road changes that will inevitably come, and shout 'save our town'. When independent shops begin to close in Leek, it won't be because of Sainsburys who will simply take market share from Aldi, Morrisons, Coop, and Netto, when those shops begin to close it will be down to you Povey, you Mr Cozens, you Leek Chamber of Trade and to you Leek Town Council. Leave us retailers to worry about Sainsburys, let us give the town an independent presence, don't pretend you are doing us a favour by arranging these events just let us get on with keeping our heads above water in these incredibly tough times.

We preach to the people of Leek, begging them to shop local, and then we close the town off to them and play right in to the hands of Morrisons who are loving it.

Traffic in town was horrendous because of the street closures. Those vehicles trying to turn up Russell Street added to the gridlock and those trying to pass through Leek to enter the Peak District will only remember Leek for the misery it hat to go through to get away from it.

I'm sure the ice cream man sold a lot more ice cream. I'm sure the coffee shop sold a few more cups of coffee. But our trade was obliterated, I don't mean we were 10% down, I don't mean 20% down, I mean that up until 1pm today, we'd sold £60 worth of goods where on a normal day we'd have sold £600 and on Easter Saturday more like £1000. And that stock that we ordered in to achieve those sells sits on the shelf, and the corresponding invoice requires paying.

Leek needs tow worry about some of it's Councillors, shops opening on Thursdays, not closing our streets and radical things like that before it worries about Sainsburys.

Save Our Leek

French Market Chaos In Leek

Sorry about this but...

In the current economic climate, you'd think that it would be the responsibility of local councils and of local organisations such as chambers of trade to think incredibly seriously about how its actions affect local trade. Over the past couple of years events within our town centre have seemed to be a popular route that the chamber of trade in particular seem to have chosen in a bid to improve the town's trade. Their thinking is that if you bring thousands of extra people into the town, they will automatically spend money in it. Put a funfair in the market place and families will pour into the local shops and spend extra dosh...have a living nativity in the town, and after singing a song or two, the choir will quickly make its way through every establishment in town, spending as it goes. Even better still, close the whole town off, bring traffic to a standstill, make parking almost impossible, bring a few stalls in under the banner of 'French Market', shut our streets and hey presto...all the happy shoppers that visit it will be the making of Leek's Christmas 2010, oh and don't forget to be grateful shop keepers, we've brought the extra footfall in, it's your responsibility to get them spending.

And so, we've just witnessed our worst Friday's trade ever since we took over The Wine Shop in Leek in 2002. Russell Street is closed to traffic because traders in Sheep Market and Stanley Street wanted the market...NIMBY but in busy thoroughfare Derby Street...necessitating the closure of Russell Street... are there are no important traders down there....?

This was Russell Street just after 12 noon today. Usually cars would line the street. People stopping for 15 minutes to run to the bank, or go to the butchers, stopping for a quick lunch or to visit our independent shops. Russell Street is about the only place the shopper can do this in the town centre. Close Russell Street and we lose our trade..no one is able to carry a case of wine through the streets of Leek to their far away car. This event is over 3 days so a closed street is what we are having to put up with on Friday 19th Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st November.

I thought I'd better have a look at the market and hoped that, given our sacrifice of trade in this incredibly tough time in retail, that at least there would be a bustle of many people in town.....it was empty and we're seriously p@ssed off about the fact that we should be grateful for the council's, and the chamber of trade's efforts to show us how business is done and improved....just leave us alone and let us do what we know how to do...let our customers get to our shops and leave us to get on with doing our business and endeavouring to survive. Christmas is the most important time for many retailers, it is when we take most of our yearly turnover. Start taking 3 days out of our Christmas trade and we're talking about the loss of thousands of pounds in turnover.

After making various enquiries, I've discovered that these stall traders, as well as obviously not paying rates, are not even required to pay rent for their pitch.

What concerns me is that most of the people who have endorsed the coming of the French market, are also the ones making terrified protests about Sainsburys building an edge of town complex that will be bringing many jobs, housing and let's face it, a much more enjoyable shopping experience than any of the supermarkets than Leek already has. Is it acceptable for a small market like this to choke our town in such an important trading period, and for the money that it does manage to take to be taken out of  Leek, and further afield as far as France?

I agree with the council and the Chamber of Trade that these events do bring lots of extra people into town, but......if I'm visiting Leek to attend a Leek 800 charter event, a living nativity, a french market, a St Georges Day celebration, a Club Day, all of which involve the mandatory closure of Russell Street, then I'm visiting Leek to visit that event, why should or why would I shop in the local establishments...I can do that any time. Why not hold these events at Brough Park or California car park so that they are a success in themselves and local traders benefit because our customers are able to get to us?

The most important point of all that I would like to make in this rare Angling and Dramming rant is this....this isn't a game, we're not sitting outside the front of our house selling rose petal perfume or knackered toys, we're trying to run our businesses in the way we know how to....we do know how to run our business.....don't ask traders to be grateful for any of the work you do for the town because if events continue in this vein you will kill Leek town centre...it's not Sainsburys we should be scared of...many more occasions of closed streets in Leek will mean closed shops...for good.