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

Save Southside's local shops (part 2)

The Wandsworth Guardian has picked up on the campaign to save the local family shops that are being booted out of Wandsworth's Southside (Arndale) Shopping Centre in the New Year because for some reason they don't fit the management's idea of proper local shops.

I'm not happy about this: while no doubt the shopping centre can make a lot more money cramming in the big brandname stores, the damage this trend does to local businesses and community links is significant.

Apparently, the council - the major influence within the Southside management - is claiming it can help the evicted businesses "find new premises". I'd like to know where, locally? Southside has already been largely responsible for eradicating small shops in Wandsworth High Street, and you need to trek quite a long way down Garratt Lane before you get to the Earlsfield local shopping area. While there are plenty of available premises in places like Roehampton High Street - where they'd be very welcome, this is hardly keeping shops local to Wandsworth town.

If you agree with me, please sign my online petition to save Southside's local shops.

And here's the Wandsworth Guardian story.

The scrooge spirit spreads to Southside

I'm just getting news that shops in the Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth - including the RSPCA charity shop - have been served eviction notices by the centre's management and have to be out early in the new year.

Notices have been served on several of the small and family-run businesses in the shopping centre - some of which have been in the Arndale Centre for a generation - with no possibility of renewal or moving to different units.

As my mum worked for over thirty years in the Arndale and as I too had Summer jobs there when I was growing up, I want to see Southside improved and the variety of shops increased: but I don't believe that this needs to happen at the expense of outlets like the RSPCA charity shop. Having allowed Putney High Street to become one of the blandest "clone" shopping centres in the country* I hope the Tory Council won't let the same happen with Southside.

We should be encouraging local stores with roots in the community, and I'm fully behind the storeholders' campaign to stay put. They've already collected over 300 signatures in support in the short time since they were served notice - I urge everyone to join in this fight.

* A 2005 national shoppers survey rated Putney High Street as one of the five worst "clone" shopping centres - meaning areas with few independent retailers and with too many shops selling almost identical itemss - in the whole country.