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Post by Steve on Jan 2, 2023 21:57:03 GMT
I still miss Comet, Focus DIY and Austin Read but they went some time ago. I can't think of any that went last year as such that I mourn but what I did notice was several businesses cut back their presence. We want to keep our High Streets, let them offer free (at least 30 minute) parking. It works in France Your last bit of this post would get you crucified in the hell hole I used to be proud to call my home town A bit of background. When the post war New Towns started springing up, five villages to the north of here were basically bulldozed and terraformed into the New Town of Cwmbran. What they then did RIGHT was create lots of factory areas and lots of key worker housing. what they did wrong at the time was rail links were misearable. They created a new town centre, and a tower block right in the middle of it and lots of council houses all around it and rents were unbelieveably low for people who wanted to come to work in the town and unsurprusingly it worked, Cwmbran had more IBM field engineers visiting per month than Cardiff's offices and BP Baglan Bay As it grew as a retail area it created car parks at the corner of the town centre which were, and still are to this day, FREE. People flocked to the place to shop and flocked to the town to work. Thirty years later when I was interviewed for my defence job in 82 I chose to work at Cwmbran, 14 miles from my former home, as opposed to Bracknell, 114 miles away. But because Moira did not drive and worked in Cardiff we had to look at Newport as it had a direct rail and direct bus routes going right past her office. As the years have gone by Newport has become the car hating capital of south wales. Cardiff Envies it for its car hatred. But the fuckwits have no fucking buses worth a damn. You cannot work in Newport and expext to catch a bus home other than to the sinkole council estate crime hotspots, no buses go to the privately owned housing areas after about five thirty. As a result the only people who can find work in Newport's town centre are the clidren of the chavs who took over the sinkhole estates. Every couple of months the labour twat on the council transport committee puts a post on arsebook twatting how fucking wonderful it is that he's given everyone in newport a free ride on its wonderful bus service that means no newport resident should ever need a car and every time he does I post back that as an over 60 year old i have a FREE bus pass and if there was a singe word of truth in his bollocks i would be the first to ditch the car but as there are NO FUCKING BUSES on our roads, the fact if there were they would be free seems a bit of an empty thing to say Meanwhile up the road in cwmbran the car parks are full and the tills are chinking. Actually, in four out of town newpirt retail parks, the most used having recently been taken over by Monmouth Town Council (!!) the car parks are equallly rammed and the tills are equally busy.
In Newport, street after street is just derelict, and any time an independent councillor tries to bring up the question of allowing an hour or maybe even two free in the empty multi storey car park constructed for many millions to house the christ knows how many thousands they bullshitted would rush into ship in the £100million shopping centre revamp they ploughed our taxes into, he is literally shouted out of the chamber.
The Labour led council actualy brought in a quorum rule demanding any councillor not part of a recognised party had no right to speak or raise questions at the councl plenary sessions thats how much they fucking hate the voters, so the independents created a Local Political Party under the PPERA whose articles of association state they have been formed in prder to circumvent Labour's actions to prevent Independent Councillors from being heard that's how much a war zone we have here.
Ah yes the green idiocy. Nostalgiarists aside nobody wants to ride on a bus if they could do the journey in a car. Round here in Sussex the lunacy is the councils think ever increasing town car park prices to rake in money this year is more important than maintaining thriving town centres that will give them income year after year. Long term planning and local councils seem to be incompatible. |
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Post by johnofgwent on Jan 2, 2023 22:01:52 GMT
Nostalgiarists aside nobody wants to ride on a bus if they could do the journey in a car. Round here in Sussex the lunacy is the councils think ever increasing town car park prices to rake in money this year is more important than maintaining thriving town centres that will give them income year after year. Long term planning and local councils seem to be incompatible. Well that's not entirely true round here. The fastest and cheapest way to get your arse from Newport to Cardiff and back is the X30 high speed service which at times in the day even beats the train. And the distate cardiff has for the motorist is approaching the hatred newport has, so finding somewhere to park that doesn't involve either a trek to rival the SAS Yomp into Port Stanley or two hours of NMW wages is a challenge. |
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Post by Steve on Jan 2, 2023 22:05:15 GMT
Ah yes been a while since I've driven Cardiff but it wasn't good. Still being stuck in a jam in a car beats sitting on a bus next to someone who feels washing is a lifestyle choice they can avoid. May not happen every or even most times but it ain't nice.
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Post by Toreador on Jan 3, 2023 5:33:25 GMT
www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64138898&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwigt6edvKn8AhX1SEEAHfFzAsUQFnoECAUQAw&usg=AOvVaw0ss2E9335oNpP9vqD5R_L3There was a sharp rise in the number of shops closing on the UK's High Streets, shopping parades, and out-of-town shopping parks in 2022, according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR). More than 17,000 sites shut up shop - the highest number for five years. Its very sad I remember has a child around October/ November with my mum and dad making a trip to Manchester to the big high street storesblike dedemens, And woolworth both sadly gone . We even went all the way to Oxford rd London on a few occasion to view the shop Christmas displays . Can you remember any retail stores you had in your town or had to vist out of town that shut down. I still miss Comet, Focus DIY and Austin Read but they went some time ago. I can't think of any that went last year as such that I mourn but what I did notice was several businesses cut back their presence. We want to keep our High Streets, let them offer free (at least 30 minute) parking. It works in France It's 12 years since I returned from France but during a six year stay and travelling to towns, cities and villages I never once had to pay for parking. Better still, you never had to search as far as the horizon looking for a pay point. |
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Post by johnofgwent on Jan 3, 2023 8:04:49 GMT
I mentioned Monmouth council earlier who have taken over an out of town retail centre in Newport as the council declared themselves opposed to them and disposed of one they were making money from.
Monmouth council were famous (infamous in the eyes of their labour opposition and adjacent labour administrations) for doing what the French did / do. Free time limited parking all over the place. Not so in the last year or so sadly.
The biggest laugh on public record was about five years ago when some Newport twat stood up at a joint county council meeting venue and boasted of their £5 max parking charge ‘where else in south wales can you park all day for less than £5’
He was saying it in Gwent County Council HQ in Cwmbran where as I said parking is still free. You could have heard the laughter in Swansea.
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Post by Morgan on Jan 3, 2023 10:00:26 GMT
It's the Age of Amazon. I don't need to go to Tesco's or Morrison's. I can get everything delivered for a small fee. If I want new furniture I can look on the internet then go to what is virtually a warehouse, view it, try it and order it if it's suitable. I honestly can't remember the last time we went grocery shopping.
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Post by Steve on Jan 3, 2023 10:47:51 GMT
It's the Age of Amazon. I don't need to go to Tesco's or Morrison's. I can get everything delivered for a small fee. If I want new furniture I can look on the internet then go to what is virtually a warehouse, view it, try it and order it if it's suitable. I honestly can't remember the last time we went grocery shopping. I get all that but IMHO going shopping to real shops with spouse is one of the great pleasures in life. You discover things, you talk about those new things and laugh at some of the daft things (and people) you see. And buying clothes online is rarely wise. Long may real shops be with us. |
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Post by johnofgwent on Jan 3, 2023 10:55:54 GMT
It's the Age of Amazon. I don't need to go to Tesco's or Morrison's. I can get everything delivered for a small fee. If I want new furniture I can look on the internet then go to what is virtually a warehouse, view it, try it and order it if it's suitable. I honestly can't remember the last time we went grocery shopping. You were doing so well until you said ‘try it’ You might live in the Age of Amazon but I like to choose what I take home to eat not have someone substitute something. And the fees are not remotely small |
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Post by besoeker3 on Jan 3, 2023 11:32:15 GMT
It's the Age of Amazon. I don't need to go to Tesco's or Morrison's. I can get everything delivered for a small fee. If I want new furniture I can look on the internet then go to what is virtually a warehouse, view it, try it and order it if it's suitable. I honestly can't remember the last time we went grocery shopping. I said more or less the same thing further up this thread. |
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Post by besoeker3 on Jan 3, 2023 11:59:51 GMT
It's the Age of Amazon. I don't need to go to Tesco's or Morrison's. I can get everything delivered for a small fee. If I want new furniture I can look on the internet then go to what is virtually a warehouse, view it, try it and order it if it's suitable. I honestly can't remember the last time we went grocery shopping. I get all that but IMHO going shopping to real shops with spouse is one of the great pleasures in life. You discover things, you talk about those new things and laugh at some of the daft things (and people) you see. And buying clothes online is rarely wise. Long may real shops be with us. For me shopping is a ghastly experience. Different strokes for different folks I guess....... |
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Post by Steve on Jan 3, 2023 12:29:32 GMT
I get all that but IMHO going shopping to real shops with spouse is one of the great pleasures in life. You discover things, you talk about those new things and laugh at some of the daft things (and people) you see. And buying clothes online is rarely wise. Long may real shops be with us. For me shopping is a ghastly experience. Different strokes for different folks I guess....... Indeed, life would be so so dull if we were all the same |
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Post by Red Rackham on Jan 3, 2023 13:08:26 GMT
www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64138898&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwigt6edvKn8AhX1SEEAHfFzAsUQFnoECAUQAw&usg=AOvVaw0ss2E9335oNpP9vqD5R_L3There was a sharp rise in the number of shops closing on the UK's High Streets, shopping parades, and out-of-town shopping parks in 2022, according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR). More than 17,000 sites shut up shop - the highest number for five years. Its very sad I remember has a child around October/ November with my mum and dad making a trip to Manchester to the big high street storesblike dedemens, And woolworth both sadly gone . We even went all the way to Oxford rd London on a few occasion to view the shop Christmas displays . Can you remember any retail stores you had in your town or had to vist out of town that shut down. I still miss Comet, Focus DIY and Austin Read but they went some time ago. I can't think of any that went last year as such that I mourn but what I did notice was several businesses cut back their presence. We want to keep our High Streets, let them offer free (at least 30 minute) parking. It works in France Austin Reed was a nice shop, a proper gents clothes shop. Whenever we went to Birmingham which wasn't often I'd always make time to visit Austin Reed, now long gone sadly. A couple of years ago, well three or four probably, Mrs R and I were in Stafford, she always liked to look around a shop called Edinburgh Woollen Mill (Before it closed) As she was looking around I happened to notice quite a nice shirt, I pulled it out to discover it was an Austin Reed shirt! I asked an assistant why they had Austin Reed on sale, she said Edinburgh Woollen Mill had bought Austin Reed and still had stock to sell. I couldn't believe it, I was well chuffed. Mrs R went in for a quick look, I came out with armful of Austin Reed clothes that I thought I'd never see again. |
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Post by Steve on Jan 3, 2023 13:27:39 GMT
Austin Read casual gear was so well made I think some of it will outlast me. Only problem with that is someone can look at me and ask 'how old is that shirt?'
Well fuck em
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Post by Red Rackham on Jan 3, 2023 14:24:16 GMT
Didn't the demise of the High Street start in the 1980's when large out of town, or edge of town supermarkets became fashionable. Then pedestrianisation became the buzz word and councils banned cars from town centres. The internet, home shopping and Amazon are probably the final nails in the coffin for the traditional High Street. Our local town, Stafford, used to be a nice place to go shopping, plenty of shops to suit everyone. These days all you see are closed shops, shop for rent signs and charity shops. I think there's only one gents clothes shop left. I suppose there's always M&S but even that's not the same.
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Post by Morgan on Jan 3, 2023 14:38:32 GMT
Shopping with any woman is a bloody nightmare in my experience. Start at one end of the high street and she sees a pair of shoes or something she likes. 45 minutes later and you're at the other end of the high street - she's still trying on shoes at every shop that sells them, then it's back to the first shop you went in and she buys the first pair she liked and tried on.
No thanks. If you've never spent ages trailing around behind a woman who can't make up her mind then you've never been married.
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