My view on the High Street

A response to letter writer Mr Walsh in this weeks LB News (Local Newspaper) following on from an article the previous week...


When discussing the High Street and the needs of the Town, it is easy to produce a list of things we need but we need to think carefully for a moment here. There is not a town, borough, district or county in the Country that does not have a shopping list of what the residents perceive is lacking.

We must start here in Leighton Buzzard by remembering we have a great historic High Street with lots of interesting shops in an ancient market town but at the same time should not be complacent, we have a right to air our views on what else we would like to have or see in the Town Centre and Town as a whole.

We have a number of estate agents, charity shops, betting shops, coffee shops and hairdressers all offering largely the same product or service with of course some differences in how they offer it. I am not against this in any way and know that a successful high street will have more than one type of business.

Our own moral judgements should not be inflicted on others, I personally am not a fan of tattoos but I am pleased to see we have this service in our town. I am not a social drinker but I am pleased we have a number of pubs (some better than others) but I do worry that it is too easy for copycat industries to appear in the town and thus reduce the available retail space while not really adding any great value to our community.

To Mr Walsh who has attributed comments to me that I did not make, there is an opportunity cost to consider. It is easy to say that a shop is better occupied than not but if the opportunity for a new and desirable shop to come to town is removed through a lack of available shops then that too is bad.

Looking at one extreme, surely no one is suggesting we want 12 betting shops in the high street? That one 250m stretch of road?

You have to consider this as an overall plan for the High Street and not take one or two comments in isolation. "Shop good" or "shop bad" is not the full answer.

At no point in the newspaper article did I say William Hill coming to town was bad or that I didn't want it, just that we need look at the situation we are in and ask why are the businesses residents say they want in the town not coming in?

I am currently looking at what can be done through Central Bedfordshire to encourage business that the majority of people want to see here.

Whatever the type of shop, the argument is not simply one of occupied shops or unoccupied but of limited space. Yes I would rather it was used by someone but given the choice between waiting a while and encouraging a business in to the town that would bring shoppers in who spend money in a variety of shops or having a shop where people go there and go home, I would rather each business played their part in creating a thriving town centre.

The ASK restaurant Mr Walsh was very much supported by Councillors on the Town and District and it is the old South Beds District owned building they are in. A small group of people using the newspapers letters page created the anti ASK feeling but Councillors spoke to as many residents as they could out in the street on market days and via surgeries to get the real feeling of what people wanted.

All Councillors do is try to represent the desires of residents in their ward, their Town and their County.

It was for this reason I was involved with the creation of I Love LB and I beleive Mr Walsh has confused my comments with Mr Garvin's (the Chairman) comments that "William Hill would not be a welcome addition to the town". While the words are strong, Mr Garvin was only saying what the vast majority of residents have said and we must not think our view is more important than everyone else's.

People may choose to gamble their money in a William Hill betting shop, that freedom belongs to them but it is us collectively that pick up the cost of gambling addiction and a loss of character in our Town Centre.

What our Town Centre needs is a lot of thought and some creativity to ensure it thrives and serves it community for the next thousand years. Work is underway to protect and improve the Market Cross, there are a number of independent interesting shops as well as some national brands and a market every Tuesday and Saturday.

There is no reason not to come in to the Town Centre and help keep our special little town sustainable.

Leighton Buzzard College?

As reported in my election literature and mentioned before in the local press, Dunstable College is looking to build a new state of the art college building in Leighton Buzzard and has been working with Town Councillors for some time planning this. They have also put forward their desire to rename the college to Central Bedfordshire College.

Whilst this did not find favour with Dunstable Town Council who believed the college was only in Dunstable, the college operates sites already in Houghton Regis, Leighton Buzzard and of course the main site in Dunstable.

The Town opposition Liberal Democrats seem not to be pleased with anything good the Conservative members of the Council do but we are very close to getting both a college and a hospital in the town, something their group failed to do for over 8 years so you can understand the resentment. They have recorded their concerns in the paper which were already well noted and again I will stress that this is the beginning. I would be keen to have comments placed below and if you can include the road you live on and your name, we can include them in the consultation.

Early discussions with the College singled out the South East of the town as a good place to build due to the forced expansion and new access routes. An area of land surrounding Astral Park was looked at but there are restrictions on what we can use that land for.

In order for the Council to proceed with the discussions, it was important to make the agreement in principle public and as such a committee needed to approve it.

Once we have plans for the area, we will consult with the ward and in particular those people living nearest to the site as initial ideas would solve a lot of the issues on community space and sports facilities.

We must stop rumours before they begin - no one has at an point been talking of a college building the size of the current Dunstable site both in terms of land area and height, if anything we are looking at a single storey small building with sports facilities attached.

This article in LB News might be of interest. As always we will keep you posted.

Setting of fees for Central Beds

No one likes having to pay fees but they are essential to the financing of Council services so over the coming weeks I will be leading a cross party group of members and officers to look at the different fees charged across Central Bedfordshire.

Everything is being looked at and I want to make sure we look at them all from a fresh point of view. Simply putting some up by a few percent and others down is not the answer. I want to ensure we look at the cost of providing the service on one hand but then consider what is a fair cost to charge as many of the charges made will be emotive and some should be subsidised for good reasons if we are to ensure everyone has access to the services we consider most important for a good community.

If you have paid any CBC charges lately please let me know what it was and if you thoughts it was fair, too high or too low (if there is such a thing).

As soon as we have our first meeting I will report back