Save Southside's local shops (part 3)

I'm pleased that the Wandsworth Guardian has today put the issue of local shops being driven from the Southside shopping centre on its front page, because the shape of our town centres is an issue close to my heart.

There is plenty wrong with Southside - if it wasn't there today no-one would, I suspect, suggest building something similar - it is very much a creation of the 1960s and 70s - but driving out the shops that make it different from any other shopping centre isn't going to fix what's wrong.

Millions have been invested into Southside in recent years - absolutely rightly - but it seems that the "bigger must be better" mentality that built the Arndale Centre in the first place still persists among managers and planners. They're wrong. The future of town centres, if we want them to retain any distinctiveness and what I call "soul" is through encouraging local businesses, not just pandering to the big brand names. We need a mix. Southside and the Council just don't seem to get this self-evident truth.

Here's the Guardian frontpage story in a larger version