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Need to reduce shop rents
HAVING now been in Horsham town, just off Middle Street with my curtain and carpet showroom for nearly nine years now, I find it quite unbelievable that you can run a headline stating 'Empty shops but lots of potential for town'.
To my mind Horsham, while not being alone in the problem of empty retail units, cannot address the problem, until greedy landlords reduce the rents, the government decreases the business rates, and councils start to have more say in how many of one style of retail unit can be in the town.
There are, I have been told, over 50 hairdressers in the Horsham town area, new restaurants opening up, spending lots of money on old sites, which improves the appearance of the town - but do we need them all?
As a general retailer we need more variety of trades not more of the same. Horsham lost a great pulling power when Chart and Lawrence closed its doors.
Annette's had been in the town for nearly 50 years and had to shut down. That premises and the one right next door have been empty for over two years.
Horsham has Crawley on its doorstep with more variety of shops and stores, and would have had a John Lewis store, but I believe that has been put on hold. If that comes along who would want to shop in Horsham? The town needs more diverse traders.
In the main West Street we have got five opticians, in the Carfax area, which is a very large potentially good retail area, we have all estate agents and a post office that is a nightmare to go into as there is always a large queue.
Bad planning - whose fault can that be, only the council's.
Banks, building societies, mobile phone shops make up the rest of West Street with only a small number of proper retail shops selling goods to buy. Did we need two big name coffee shops within 100 yards of each other? No we did not.
Do we need all those restaurants in East Street? No we don't. All they are doing is making it harder for the older established units to make a living. Competition is all well and good but it means too many of one kind means that someone does not take enough money and has to close their doors.
I have been in Horsham for nearly nine years but my turnover has not increased over these years as I had hoped, I know I am just off the main street but my rent is more affordable, as all these big retail names that have gone into administration have found out once the turnover drops off nothing can save you.
Rents have to come down dramatically if town centres are to survive, parking charges have to be much lower to compete with the free parking out of town shopping areas have, and we must not build any more out of town centres, as all it does is kill the High Street.
Horsham needs a lot of help to get people other than locals to shop here. It's lucky there is not a rail link to Guildford as that is a big draw for people who live nearer that town. All one can say in Horsham's favour is, it's a very pretty town and quite easy to walk around but that's about it.
IAN WOOD
Materialistic Curtains
Glynde Place, Horsham
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 14 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
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