Is Market Drayton Shropshire’s most abandoned town?
Wednesday 6th July 2011, 11:13AM BST.
With its empty shops, boarded-up hotel and estate agents’ boards, is Market Drayton the most abandoned town centre in Shropshire?
Today the Shropshire Star lifts the lid on a serious issue for all the county’s market towns – how to keep going when big-name stores, and independent traders, are pulling out.
Market Drayton shopkeepers say their situation is made worse by parking charges, introduced in April.
The town is also circled by supermarkets, with Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, and Asda now looking to expand on the former Netto site.
“You would be a fool to open a shop in Market Drayton at the moment,” claims Russell Taylor, who runs Lloyd’s Interiors in Cheshire Street.
“People don’t think there’s enough to warrant paying £1.80 a day to park.”
Andy Brown, who runs a sports shop in Shropshire Street and chairs the chamber of trade, said: “If the big name shops are failing, you know that you are on a sticky wicket. I think the the survival of this town is going to be heavily involved with tourism – and the canal here is key.”
Full story in today’s Shropshire Star
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have you ever been to much wenlock
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The same applies to Wem, only it doesn’t even have a canal to save it.
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It is Market Drayton’s own fault: supermarkets were kept out until Morrison’s secured the old auction site. The Lidl area in Stafford Street and the land from there to the back of the old Boots and Woolworths should have been developed for a more mainstream supermarket brand many years ago.
To see how it should work please visit Newport to see how Waitrose and the Co-op integrate into the town, providing additional parking and a path through to the High Street. Market Drayton’s layout encourages people to go to the supermarket and completely ignore town centre shops as they are too far away, a trip to the market on Wednesday being the only reason anyone would go into the centre.
Then, of course, there are parking charges. With a TF postcode it is a pity that Market Drayton cannot be under Telford and Wrekin, who so far have not imposed charges in most local areas. Bear in mind that unexpected places like Bilston and Tettenhall have free parking as otherwise they would loose out to nearby Wolverhampton. Shropshire council need to take on this idea to keep places like Ellesmere, Wem, Whitchurch and Market Drayton alive as most people have the means to choose Chester, Stoke, Shrewsbury or Telford as alternatives unless the small towns are made easier to shop in.
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Re-reading, I meant the Netto site in Stafford Street. I also re-read the comment from the chamber of trade “I think the survival of this town is going to be heavily involved with tourism – and the canal here is key” Please take head out of sand, the car is king, not the canal, Audlem, Norbury Junction and Gnosall get some trade off the canal but it hardly makes for a thriving High Street!
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Just to clarify, Morrisons is a full blown supermarket undergoing expansion which will bring back it’s cafe & extend the car parking spaces. It is within easy walking distance of the Maer Lane canal bridge.
Sainsbury’s is a new very small ‘convenience’ store not a proper supermarket so it’s pricing isn’t competitive, just like the Tesco owned ‘One Stop’ shop along the same road. These two are on the other side of town from the canal.
Asda does have space to convert the Netto premises into a smallish ‘supermarket’ and this is within the Town centre inner ring road plus is the 1st shop canal visitors come across when waking or cycling in on the Newcastle Road.
I agree with Andy Brown, the Town Council and Shropshire Council should be doing much more to make Market Drayton ‘The Place’ for the thousands of Shropshire Canal users to visit. Unfortunately visitor mooring spaces are limited and a much needed purpose built with full facilities, including visitors moorings, local big Marina has never materialised.
The loss of the Sunday Arriva Bus route 164/64 Hanley to Shrewsbury service, plus what I believe will be curtailed evening services, will further isolate this Market Town because unlike Wem, Whitchurch or Oswestry we are without a Railway Line and Station.
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at least towns have the infrastructure for new business’s to re-establish , in villages , when a business , i.e pub or butchers goes , they are turned into housing and the opportunity is lost for good
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At the time of writing, this is one of the Shropshire Star web site’s most abandoned topics. It doesn’t bode well.
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The above six comments ruined that attempt at humour, didn’t they?!
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Almost all of Shropshire’s market towns are struggling and I’m afraid its the result of the big supermarkets being allowed to expand on out of town sites and sell everything!!
The only way to save the town centres is:
1 Everybody to try to shop local in their own high streets
2 The Government to get to grips with the regulation of out of town shopping centres
3 The large supermarkets to accept their social responsibility and pay a ‘small fraction’ of their huge profits to regenerate our town centres.
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So let’s think about this for a moment; the key role of a Chamber is to promote the town for the benefit of its members – so how does trashing the town achieve this? Have any of these people assembled their brain cells for even ten seconds before opening their mouths?
What a bad joke! Why oh why do people have to be so negative? Look at the town properly; we have, in Festival Drayton, a jewel in the crown that any town would want to emulate, we have some really good shops selling quality products, we have a new brewery that is putting the town firmly on the map, we have one of the biggest names in food production about to spend millions in expanding their factory, we have some of the finest countryside around for many a mile, we have an historic legacy that draws in visitors all the year round. Last weekend we saw one of the best carnival weekends ever, something that should have made all of us who live in the town feel proud to live here.
Yes, the High Street is a mess, but how is this the fault of anyone other than those who own the properties? Does anyone really want their council taxes to double to put right what private landowners should be doing for themselves? I think not.
The simple truth is that retailing is changing; many people buy on the internet, many people shop in supermarkets, many people shop where they work and over 2,000 people travel out of town every day to work.
High time, I think, for those who run the local Chamber to stop moaning and start doing something to promote the town. Work with the local Councils, not against them.
One final comment; at around 2pm this afternoon there were no empty spaces on the Frogmore Road car park – charges keeping people away – I don’t think so!
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After having read multi millionaire and successful entrepreneur Dunacn Banatyne’s latest book, he states that the most common reason for a business’s failure is that the owner does not look at his or her actions and the effect that those actions have had on the business, and works to correct them. I feel that both Andy and Russell start with their own businesses and not factors that they cannot control. The comments from the chairman of the chamber of trade will have done more harm to this town’s current situation than any suggested supermarket and he should consider his position if he’s not going to work in a positive and proactive manner.
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I feel that Duncan Banatyne would not be a millionaire today if he had opened a business in Market Drayton, what would he know about running a small business in a town like ours he made the majority of his money in the boom times and has invested wisely. I also have read his book and others like it that is what inspired me to run my business and i feel that I put a lot into it infact everything that I own that is why It hurts so much when another charge, tax or whatever else is put before us. It gets you down and you feel no one cares. we love Market Drayton my family have lived here for over 100 years and we opened our business because we wanted Market Drayton to have what towns like Shrewsbury have but I do not know how much longer we can hold on.
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there is more to this town then empty shops we have some fantastic assests in the town the town is a low crime area and market drayton town council tried their damn best to stop the parking charges but sadly failed
every town in shropshire is struggling and the photos in tonights paper dont do market drayton any favours in future business coming here they have no photos of the lovely things we have in our town and people need to look at teh bigger picture
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i moved to Newport from Telford 6 months ago and recently i went to Market Drayton shopping for change one Saturday being so much closer to home now. I paid £1.20 to park on the one by B & M’s for 3 hours which wasn’t bad and I had no trouble finding a space at 10am (although the pouring rain might have had something do with that!)
I enjoyed the change of scenery but my biggest problem was lack of visitor information. I couldn’t find the Factory shop I specifically went there for (though I did spend in the High Street)and I ‘stumbled’ on the museum too late to visit it. I didn’t even realise the canal went through Drayton!
I love visiting small towns but I need information. Anyone passing through cannot see there’s anything worth stopping for!
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I can see this happening to Newport! Just been to the “consultation” meeting about the “proposed” massive new development and it has all the hallmarks of a done deal! They say that a new supermarket on the outskirts of Newport will keep people shopping in the town! Obviously they need to visit Market Drayton or even worse, Hadley. Newport may well have a Waitrose in the town but I’ve noticed that the majority of their customers drive into the supermarket car park, spend in the supermarket, eat and drink in the supermarket and then drive home! An additional supermarket here will surely kill off the remaining bakeries, butchers, cafes and the indoor market! I feel its all about big money for investors. Very sad!
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What indoor market? There’s nothing there on a Saturday, only Friday when everyone’s at work and can’t visit it anyway!
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I live in Market Drayton and run a small business in Newport. The 2 main things that killed off most of the small businesses in Market Drayton town centre was;
1. Allowing the big supermarkets in,and then letting more in.
2. Trying to be a big town like Telford or Hanley and letting big retailers like Wilkinsons and Argos set up stall,who between them have caused the closure of more shops in town than anyone else.
I find it funny that the Chamber of Commerce feel that the Canal could be our savior.
The only thing that will save small market towns is to stop trying to be a big town. Its the small unique shops that people will come for. Not another Argos etc. For this they will always go to the likes of Teford.
Newport should take a good hard look at what has happened in Market Drayton and beware!!!
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If certain people had actually read and understood my comments There was no mention of myself trashing Market Drayton. The Chamber has not abandoned the town far from it.The Chamber of trade is one of the most pro active organisations in this town. Have you seen the old cycle shop lately what a difference we have made to this old derelict building.
The canal is a huge source that has been totally ignored for years, 30,000 people a year sail past I dont see that as a joke I see it as valuable revenue for the town.The Chamber recognised this and has now embarked on a major canal project.
with walkers are welcome and Hero’s welcome projects underway and not forgetting the Farmers Market one of the most sucsessful In the county.
The chamber has sent three proposals into the revitalisation committee and has yet to have them agreed.The chamber works hard to help all businesses in Market Drayton and rejects any comments suggesting otherwise
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Well, what about Dawley? I have never seen more than 7 people on the High Street at any one time! (and most of them are shopkeepers).
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Hi,
Well I love this aricle.
So Market Drayton people complain that there is a lack of trade, well to me to get footfall that you require would that not be a good mix between businesses (that do not require footfall but are IT, Finance etc businesses) into the area increasing employment.
Where in Market Drayton are these type of facilities in fact where is the promotion to actually be a start up business in Market Drayton.
It is so quick and easy to blame a supermarket but every town and city has supermarkets all part of the consumer capitalism then has been pushed for many years that i am sure the people on here reading have pushed and been apart of.
Really one of these empty shops should be created into a start up hub for small businesses adding additional revenue to the area and then start on the unemployment issue (big circle effect People who work = Money being spent in shops)
And to add about the shops, I am 23 why on earth would I want to go to Market Drayton to go visit charity shops? When i can go to Newcastle get the same charity shops and many more other shops I want to visit.
If you want sort the high street out start thinking of turning it into boutique town and not just catering for the old people (I know being young know a days is against the law and people have issue with it but it is ok you were that way once).
Have a great day :)
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And Madeley – now known as Tesco-town. They now own the only decent sized parking area and it’s at the back of the supermarket, well away from the High Street and the rest of the town. In – shop – out.
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Kath, Madeley had lost it’s character since the “redevelopment”. Nothing like it used to be…
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This is the second article on the subject with virtually identical headlines in the last week…and still no nearer to finding out the answer to the question repeatedly posed.
So, is it ?
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