MUCH MUCH worse, there is a planning process started to demolish our small shopping centre and rebuild on it and nearly all of the car parking, (there is a station carpark as well). They are talking about 25 towers one to be 29 stories high, over 4000 dwellings, it will make our little town centre bigger than canary wharf. The locals are up in arms, but we know what will happen, they will just keep tweaking it and reapplying, even if they only get permission for half of it it will be horrendous.
Our High Street, ( well known is these regions) was always a bustling and busy main street in the town. Had a large street market twice a week. Huge place. Now that, and all the shops on the High Street have been/are in the process of being demolished to make way for a Rural Arena ( and space) for the Arts and performances and the such like.Also one huge car park and street parking has gone too. I do tend to think that the general population here would rather have shops (to buy and browse in ) than have an open green area which will only be used occasionally and when the weather is nice. Good use of taxpayers money? We will see.
@Allotment Boy Our local town in Belgium had a large and bustling street market on Fridays when we first moved there. I loved it and went every week. A few years later the then council decided to renew the road surface and paving down that main street and the market stalls had to be moved. The works took over a year and the main street was impassable.
The market traders went elsewhere. people stopped coming and the shops and cafés lost custom. Many closed. The town centre bank and PO then closed and a supermarket opened on a new commercial lot only accessible by car. Dead town centre.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Many smaller town centres are full of empty and dying shops now that so many folk buy so much online nowadays.
Coupled with huge increases in rents and business rates, even the large chains are struggling … small market towns are struggling to reinvent themselves and make town centres more of a place to go for enjoyment and socialising as well as shopping … they’ve got a hard task on their hands … I wish them luck.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Well folks,here I am again!! I'm pretty sure I was complaining on here,my driving licence renewal arrived, with a sheet of paper,big blue letters, saying "why not renew online", long and short of it.... they wanted a new photo. Ok, fine. Went to the PO for the new photo,young lady said she could do it online there for me. This was Tuesday, she changed me £21.50. Saturday,new license with new picture arrived. So I shredded the forms and card receipt. Went to put it in my purse,it's NOT been renewed!!! Still says expiry date 23/10/23. Checked online, forms from DVLA quite clearly state, licence renewal is free over 70, I should have only paid for the photo £4.50. Course it is a bank holiday PO isn't open,I don't imagine the DVLA offices are open either.
I don't understand the problem with self service tills. I go to Waitrose scan the card and pick up a handheld scanner. Check the app for the two reduced in price items your given every week and then scan as I go and place in my own bags so no scanning of individual items at checkout. Arrive at self service checkout connect scanner to till pay and walk out.
Or you can also take the scanner to a manned till and they simply scan the scanner for you , pay and leave.
Every so often you get a random check of your shopping by staff and I've never had a problem, staff are always polite and helpful. Obviously if your on the take sooner or later it will show up.
The last thing I want to do is stand in a queue whilst someone picks every item out of a trolley and then puts it all back again into bags, give me self service any day.
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
I agree @Kili - and I prefer the scan as you shop to the self scan checkouts for a big shop. Having said that, I haven't actually done it since the start of the pandemic. We switched to click and collect and haven't gone back. We're fortunate to have lovely local shops for meat and veg - the stuff you want to hand pick. The rest of it is loaded into a locker in the SM car park for OH to pick up while he's out getting other stuff every week. I have no idea how many self scan tills there are in the shop - I've not been inside it for years. Which is probably the point
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It's actually rather nice to have a person to scan the shopping thru. Ouur SM even has a couple of tills where they say service may be slow as they're designated chat tills - a lifeline for some lonely folk who see no-one else all week.
I did try self-scan when it first came in a couple of decades ago. They checked, every single time, so it was a waste of time. Haven't tried since.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
It would be a shame if another means of personal interaction was lost to the lonely. No milkman now so the only people to knock would be Jehovah's witnesses
Posts
I do tend to think that the general population here would rather have shops (to buy and browse in ) than have an open green area which will only be used occasionally and when the weather is nice.
Good use of taxpayers money? We will see.
The market traders went elsewhere. people stopped coming and the shops and cafés lost custom. Many closed. The town centre bank and PO then closed and a supermarket opened on a new commercial lot only accessible by car. Dead town centre.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Or you can also take the scanner to a manned till and they simply scan the scanner for you , pay and leave.
Every so often you get a random check of your shopping by staff and I've never had a problem, staff are always polite and helpful. Obviously if your on the take sooner or later it will show up.
The last thing I want to do is stand in a queue whilst someone picks every item out of a trolley and then puts it all back again into bags, give me self service any day.
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw'
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I did try self-scan when it first came in a couple of decades ago. They checked, every single time, so it was a waste of time. Haven't tried since.