Shrewsbury shopper numbers fall to eight-year low, claim
Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 10:59AM GMT.
The number of people visiting Shrewsbury town centre is at an eight year low, it was claimed today.
Councillor Andrew Wagner for the Quarry and Coton Hill ward said shoppers were being driven away in droves by car parking charges and he feared worse was to come.
He said: “I have been a town councillor for eight years and I’ve run businesses in the town centre and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it in all that time. Customers are being driven away by car park charges and shop owners are being driven away by higher rents.
“You only have to look at the empty car parks to see how bad it is. I think it will only get worse. I feel for all the shops but especially for the independent shops which are the heart and soul of Shrewsbury.”
His warning came as a new report published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) this week revealed that the number of shoppers hitting the high streets across the West Midlands is down more than 10 per cent on last year.
The report said that footfall figures in town centres across the West Midlands are the worst in the country, suffering a 10.4 per cent drop on the same period last year. It also said the amount of empty shops in the West Midlands stood at 11 per cent.
Phil Freeman, from Shop in the Loop, said the real test on Shrewsbury’s high street would come after Christmas.
He said: “Lots of businesses are setting up in the run-up to Christmas but it is whether they will continue afterwards.
Just look at Woolworths which use to do 90 per cent of its trading in the weeks leading up to Christmas.”
And other traders remain optimistic about the footfall count in Shrewsbury town centre.
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Both parking charges and banning concessionary passes from the Park and Ride are key factors.
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the passes were banned because, they are paid for by the council so you can travel for nothing, park and ride is funded also by the council, so if you have people travelling on their passes for nothing, on a service already pais for by the council the council then does not make money to cover the costs of park and ride which it wasnt doing it was making a very big loss. so to safeguard park and ride they banned the passes. you cant have it free always, pass or no pass
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We have visited Shrewsbury on Sundays for many years but since the charges in the multi storey are now the same on Sunday as on week days we stay away
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Agreed.
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I strongly agree with this, mmm yaaah
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No, the charges are not solely to blame. They do not help of course, but the main reason is COST and CONVENIENCE.
How often have people said on this subject that the town centre shops are too expensive, and too scattered to make a weekly shop a viable option. That is, of course, if you could buy all you needed in the centre.
One stop shopping, free parking, lower prices. These are the reasons people do not use the town centre shops.
This is the future of shopping. Maybe Mr. Wagner will take off his blinkers and accept the fact. Goodbye small shops.
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Colin D, you may want to shop in a faceless mall where everything is the same whether you are in Shrewsbury, Sevenoaks or Sheffield, but I certainly don’t! However I avoid paying parking charges by parking outside the town centre and walking in, and then enjoying the invididual shops that are there. I actually thought that there were more new shops opened the last time I visited. Even in these difficult times, hopefully not everything in life comes down to the cheapest option. The experience of walking around one of the most beautiful towns in England in the run up to Christmas, is priceless.
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Well done Richard, you’ve solved your parking problem. Now, in your infinite wisdom, perhaps you could advise a mother, with a toddler in tow, who needs to do a weekly shop for her family on the best way to carry out her task.
Park outside and walk in??? How many trips back to the car to store the bags of shopping? How cooperative is the toddler going to be after a couple of hikes? How far is she going to have to walk just to find all the things she needs? How much more is she going to pay in the centre shops?
If you can come up with a suitable solution to all these problems, you’re a better man than I am. Reply and solution eagerly awaited.
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How do you think we did it years ago ? You just walked and put your goods any where on the pram and pushed. You youngsters today are spoilt, without a car your lost.
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I wonder if John remembers when all this was fields.
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I don’t deny that shopping centres and malls are convenient, and for food shopping they’re attractive for bulk purchases. The town centre of S’bury isn’t trying to attract the large scale food shop, so we’re talking about different things, and I’ve yet to find in most supermarkets the range of cheese and meats available in S’bury market for example. However for individual shops with character and service, then give me Shrewsbury any day to Merry Hill, Meadowhall, and the such like. I trust the day never happens when it all boils down to cost and convenience as you suggest. If that’s all that matters to you then I suggest you never venture from your front door and do it on the internet.
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@ John Jones.
I have no idea how old you are John, but, as a child I regularly went to Shrewsbury on a Saturday, shopping with my parents.
How did we do it?? We drove in and parked on the street, then moved on, if necessary. After all the shopping was done, we parked by a cafe for refreshments before heading home.
This was when I was about 7 or 8 which was 1947-1948.
Pay a visit to Tesco one Saturday John, and take note of how much shopping people get in a trolley. Then, calculate how many times they would have to trek backwards and forwards to a car parked on the outskirts. It is not practical and of course, you pay through the nose for the honour of shopping in the town centre.
R.I.P. town centre shopping trips.
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Colin D. I’m the same age as you.” We drove and parked in the street, we parked and went into a cafe” Your parents must have been posh in those days to have a car and gone into a cafe. I think the first cafe that I went into was Sidoli’s on wyle cop, when they had the first espresso coffee machine in the middle 50s, Oh how we used to impress the girls. As for a car it was 1960 when my parents bought their first one, A ford 105e side valve, Oh happy days!!!!!!!
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Hi Richard and Colin,
I am much younger than you two but… I can’t remember the last time I used an out of town supermarket and I have no intention of doing so in the near future. It’s easy enough to do a weekly haul using (a funky!) shopping trolley. If you don’t live in the town centre you can park all day behind the Seven Stars for £2 a day.
Best, Kat.
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RIP Shrewsbury town centre. for you were the author of your own demise.
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They need to pedestrianize the high street, change the traffic flow up wyle cop along st. mary’s street. stop the buses from entering the town centre. make all parking free. Have the chuggers on pride hill giving out vouchers to drive business’. it will never happen coz it makes sense. best option would be to build another hotel on smithfield road and bingo!! recession over. Jobs a gudden. RIP Shropshire never mind Shrewsbury.
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Taking the car park at St Julian’s Friars as an example, you used to be able to park all day for less than £3. You now only get up to four hours for the same price. If you have shopping to do and are perhaps meeting friends for lunch, four hours is not enough, and it is inconvenient to go all the way back down there to top up on parking. In these circumstances, I imagine people will shop elsewhere.
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In Telford if you exceed 3 hours, the exit ticket price is £6.Unless of course you are one of the favoured motorists who,despite having no connection with it, have been given permission by the West Mercia Police to park all day [Mon-Fri]free of charge in it’s Malinsgate HQ car park. A car park recently expanded at considerable cost to the taxpayer to create far more spaces than the WMP need for this very purpose.
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helps if there are shops to shop in!!! Pridehill centre and Riverside are mostly empty units… theres roadworks and building going on in inconvenient places like the bus station… but if yr a tourist you have plenty of coffeeshops and buildings covered in scoffolding to look at
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My husband and I used to come from Oswestry into Shrewsbury shopping every Saturday but have not come since the concessionary bus pass ceased to be valid on the park and ride last April. The parking charges are way too high and coupled with the congestion in town, it is really not worth coming. It is much easier and cheaper to stay on the M54 and got into Telford instead.
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Choice 1
Drive from Oswestry to Shrewsbury pay £3.20 for 2 park & ride return tickets shop at your leisure, all day if you want to…A damn sight cheaper than parking in any of the town’s carparks…..VALUE
Your Choice
Bypass Shrewsbury,drive to Telford(no Park and Ride)spend more than 3 hours shopping,and pay £6.00 in parking charges plus the cost of at least 2 litres of extra fuel. NO BRAINER
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Its the parking costs that put me off. Bring the price down a bit and I think Shrewsbury will get shoppers back.
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I find it quite remarkable that when working in a small independent shop that visitors from far and wide find our town and shops great and buy. Is it not a case that we always think that we can do better if we go to another town to do our shopping and not spare a thought for what we have and helping our local economy. Parking prices are a poor excuse as the P&R is very good value for money
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I like the diversity of the shops in Shrewsbury – what I don’t like are the constant roadworks around the town and the parking charges.
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The market is fab.
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I’ve said this before… My London friends come up for the shopping. Great independents in a small area (for comparison shopping). I don’t drive and find everything I need in the town centre – and I am very fussy! I’ve lived in Cheltenham, Canterbury, Paris, Nantwich and now St Ives and am impressed. Please don’t talk Shrewsbury down.
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“Councillor Andrew Wagner for the Quarry and Coton Hill ward said shoppers were being driven away in droves by car parking charges”
Is this like a reverse Park & Ride?
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I an tired of the old stories about parking. I’m a bit reticent to say this… A professor from my old student days did consultancy work on Shrewsbury shopping (Aston Martin and yacht). We are the wrong demographic I won’t elaborate.
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Eh? Sorry KdG, I honestly don’t understand the point or relevance of your comment.
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Hi, the point is that that, sadly, there is not a lot of money around here.
I am being circumspect.
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Hi Drone,
My point is that there isn’t a lot of money here. I have been very low key re the consultant until now. His comment was that S’bury was a council house dump. We have parted company!
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Blimey!! If he thinks Shrewsbury is a dump, what on earth must he think of Britain’s inner-cities??
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I used to work for Woolworths in the town and it DID NOT do 90 per cent of its trade in the weeks before Christmas. What a ridiculous statement – not that the firm’s nationwide collapse (three years ago!) in any way reflects on Shrewsbury today or did then. For that matter, West Midlands footfall is down by 10 percent – no mention of Shrewsbury’s own footfall data. The scaremongering is getting tiresome.
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Great shop. I loved it in small towns – Nantwich and St Ives.
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Pure greed is killing this town and lots like it. This park and ride business needs to be completely free for everyone, too much hassle and inconvenience paying for a carpark outside town just to get onto a bus with shopping and children in tow as it is. Get this system working properly and shoppers will flood back.
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The “inner loop” is little more than a living museum these days. Sundays are a write off because so few shops actually open – it’s like stepping into a time warp! The park and ride facility is a charade as well. Shop in Chester – a much more pleasant experience, better shops, an excellent park and ride service and a thriving city cente on a Sunday.
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Thought you were a Telford fan? but have to admit sadly Chester has the edge on Shrewsbury
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We used to pop in once or twice a month to shop, a pint and a spot of lunch. Car park and fuel extortion means I have not been there this year. A real pity, Shrewsbury is a lovely town with masses of history, great shops, cafes and bars. I refuse to be persecuted for the need to park and pay excess tax and vat for driving the 50 mile round trip. Sadly its now the lacklustre internet shopping experience for me (until the Goverment put an additional tax on using the internet).
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Supermarkets and online shopping is the future with ghost towns to match
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Perhaps with the increases in petrol and gas combined with a pay cut and more planned people simply cannot afford to shop in the Town Centre
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Why bother with battling through Shrewsburys terrible traffic problems and high cost of parking when Merry Hill is not far away. R.I.P Shrewsbury, the town planners and highways teams really killed you off. I feel sorry for all the independent shop keepers who have to deal with this daily.
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What does Shrewsbury town expect, when Shropshire County council have an aggressive approach with their traffic wardens patroling the streets. Also unafordable parking charges around every corner. The council trying to offer weak parking incentives leading to Christmas for shoppers NOW IT’S FAR TOO LATE!!!!
RIP Shrewsbury town centre.
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Hi Drone,
The point is that there isn’t enough money in S’bury and it’s surroundings.
Best, Kat.
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because amazon rules
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Hi Drone,
I don’t think our vastly overpaid consultant gets out enough! I have lived in many nice towns and think that S’bury is pretty good. The comment about council estates made my blood boil. Best built houses.
Kat x
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Are we supposed to be surprised by this announcement? The shopping centres are full of closed shops the rest of the shops are mobile phone shops and charity shops, it’s a total waste of time trying to shop for anyhting in Shrewsbury town centre any longer. It used to be a vibrant place with a lot of interesting shops not any more. I won’t even mention the appaling Christmas decorations (or should that be LACK of decoration!??)
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Have you seen this years Christmas Decorations? This French company that has had the contract must be laughing their heads off. How much were they? Somebody has said £40.000, if this is correct, the town council should all be sacked.
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There are plenty of good women’s clothes shops and delis. I like it.
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I work in the town centre, my desk and office window lloks into the heart of town. I do not work in retail and I am not associated to it in any way.
But for the last 3 years I have seen the number of people shopping in the town centre steadily decrease and it is very obvious. This year especially is the worst I have seen it. Every lunch time I have a walk through the town centre and to be frank, no one looks liek they are buying things. So this article is right.
Times are changing and so are peoples shopping habits. Unless the carparking prices are reduced significantly and rents on shop premises are dropped, then Shrewsbury Town Centre will die, fact.
It actually may be too late to stop it declining any further. To be fair unless you need ssome thing specific like a nice dress or a fancy coffee, whats the point in coming to town to shop. Get it online or do the sensible thing to save time and money and go to the supermarket outside town which is quicker, more efficient and cheaper.
Soory folks, but this is how it is, and we need to point the finger of blame at the council not the public.
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I made a point of considering the festive lights last night and my opinion is that they are disappointing and poor. Creating little atmosphere to encourage shopping the business rate paying traders of the town have been badly let down. The luminous net over the Square is particularly laughable and nothing looks in scale or as though it’s meant to express yuletide wonderment. Shrewsbury Council have cooked the town a complete turkey once again {a French recipe apparently} and I believe we are owed an explanation if not an outright apology. Especially as I believe the PR press office department of the council is more than adequately staffed. Merc to Council..anyone there? Are you recieving me..over……click
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