Oops, another shop closing in town.

[k4blades]

I think without that, there would be more struggling. There have been lots of prices slashed, sales, etc, well before Christmas, with retailers working on tighter margins. They can only do this because they have very tight control on costs, I know someone who has just negotiated a massive rent decrease. And that is not the climate for demanding pay increases and fancy pensions.
Yes, its tough, we all want to earn as much as possible, but for that we need a booming economy, so we need an environment that is good for business.

I was thinking the other day, (after lots of slagging off of Mrs T),  how many on the left want to see the redistribution of wealth, rob the rich to feed the poor, etc. Yet the biggest wealth distributions we have seen in modern times, were privatisations of the 80s which lead to lots of "ordinary" people becoming shareholders and having a stake in the stock market. Something unimaginable at one point.
This was followed up by the right to buy, funded often by these share deals too. So people became home owners for the first time, also something many thought they would never be able to do.
The universities were opened up so people who thought they would never go to Uni could. 
And all this from Thatcher.
What did Blair do for the poor, well he introduced the minimum wage. But every single report looking into this has said that the gap between rich and poor grew under Blair. And by the time Labour left office, young people are again thinking they will never own property, and will have to spend their lives paying rent to a landlord.

Nothings perfect in a lot of things that have happened over the years, but why do Labour try and make out that they know best when it comes to looking after working class people. Labour want people to stay "working class" as then they are more likely to vote Labour, but if anyone succeeds and then becomes middle class, they tend to vote Tory so they better not succeed!

[Old Cruser]

Chesterfield has 'moved' the town centre before thus causing business's to struggle.
I worked in old woolies years ago when the town centre was 'moved' to the precinct area, I remember takings dropping back then, and they are STILL doing it. if they go ahead with the donut plans

[therealjr]

I was thinking the other day, (after lots of slagging off of Mrs T),  how many on the left want to see the redistribution of wealth, rob the rich to feed the poor, etc. Yet the biggest wealth distributions we have seen in modern times, were privatisations of the 80s which lead to lots of "ordinary" people becoming shareholders and having a stake in the stock market. Something unimaginable at one point.

Except that the majority of the ordinary people took the inital profit and sold the shares back to the institutions who want them run for rpofit rather than for the good of the public. (Incidentally I choose to ignore the fact that what she actually did was sell us something we already owned!!

This was followed up by the right to buy, funded often by these share deals too. So people became home owners for the first time, also something many thought they would never be able to do..

Which was fine except that the councils weren't allowed to spend the money coming in to build new houses which is why we find ourselves in the mess we are now with no affordable housing.

The universities were opened up so people who thought they would never go to Uni could.  ..

To do a degree in media studies or sports sciences?? Lets be fair all that did is what it is still doing today. Keeps '000's of the unemployment registers and gets the young into debt.

And all this from Thatcher. ..

and then you wonder why she gets blamed for all the country's ills?

[k4blades]

Except that the majority of the ordinary people took the inital profit and sold the shares back to the institutions who want them run for rpofit rather than for the good of the public. (Incidentally I choose to ignore the fact that what she actually did was sell us something we already owned!!

As I said, they made some money rather than those in the city, which was my point, wealth was being re-distributed.
(And just because something is publicly owned, doesn't mean you actually "own" as an individual, you can't go down to local hospital and walk out with equipment, or the local army camp and walk out with a gun......so you couldn't gain anything personally from something being publicly owned).

Which was fine except that the councils weren't allowed to spend the money coming in to build new houses which is why we find ourselves in the mess we are now with no affordable housing.

Agreed, they should have invested in more housing, but Labour didn't change that either.

To do a degree in media studies or sports sciences?? Lets be fair all that did is what it is still doing today. Keeps '000's of the unemployment registers and gets the young into debt.

I also agree with that. I did say that nothings perfect, lots of mistakes have been made or could have been done bettter. But my point is that under Mrs T, a lot of people found themselves better off and more benefitted financially than under Labour.....and they came to power during a booming economy.

[Slacker]

The "High Street" is changing but it always has. Yes, we are losing lots of big names, but look at the new shops replacing them. New Look is a big player now, that hardly existed some years ago, coffee chains, etc, and who'd have thought a few years ago, that shops would open where you can go and have your feet nibbled by fish.

The public are moving away from buying "stuff" from the shops, they can get that online, but people do like to go out, and shops need to be more leisure based, such as pubs or restaurants. I think a lot of the big players will try and keep a site on the high street, but only to act as a "shop front" to their online business, so customers can collect / return orders, or go in to have a look at a product.

It would be a shame if Chesterfield tried to compete with the likes of Meadowhall, it will fail. And the council should NOT spend money on new buildings (which don't stay new very long), while there are old buildings sat empty.

What the council should do is play to Chesterfields strengths, people will visit the town if its a good place to visit. (And that includes appealing to tourists as well as local shoppers, as we are ideally situated with M1 on one side and all that lovely countryside on the other.

So what the town centre needs is lots of parking, (free or cheap), lots of clean toilets, etc, sheltered and pedestrian areas, to feel safe, ( security cameras and police on beat), places to sit, places that are interesting or attractive to look at, etc. So the canal side development should go ahead, lets get a few small bars and bistros, etc, there, some boats on the canal, a few small green areas. If the donut is going to be developed lets not go for the obvious choice of retail units, how about an indoor skiing thing like Milton Keynes, or some sort of internet cafe/library/technology centre, a small music venue to compete/compliment Winding Wheel, a dance center (strictly is very popular at the moment), a planetarium, ( stargazing is suddenly very popular). The point being that shops are not the future, leisure activities are what will bring people to the town, but it needs to be done in a way that doesn't spoil what we have, as Pete said, we don't want to be "another typical sh*thole town".   

PS, just heard that Screwfix  are opening on Derby Road.

I would be happy with a pay freeze if there was also a price freeze.

Increased parking is good if there is space for it. For it all to be free with limited space would create too much demand than supply which is why it is dearer in the centre of town than on the outskirts.

Milton Keynes had a clean sheet to start with unlike here where we have maintained the character of the town.

Not sure why we need another council run music venue as well as the winding wheel.

Isn't there a planetarium at Newbold? Are there enough people interested to have another?

Hopefully the canal development will contain some leisure activities but it will depend on private investment (which is preferable to private companies taking over facilities paid for by council tax payers)

[therealjr]

There's an observatory at Newbold.
Plantaterium is a different thing

[Slacker]

Oops, knew it was something spaced out

[therealjr]

Personally I wouldn't want to see us chasing trends. The Sheffield Ski Village is now under utilised. Too many golf courses were built in the mid 80's and early 90's and now they are all chasing too few golfers.
We are not going to attract big enough names to support 2 concert venues.
Personally I'd like to see the donut idea scrapped and the money used to improve the existing town centre.
Of course the problem is that the grants that are no doubt being spent on this scheme are only available for new build not for refurbishments.

[Pete]

Good post!

[Fly]

So 3(?) developers have submitted plans for the Donut. Great.
That's 3 developer 's hoping to get their hands on the millions of pounds of grant money the council can have.
They don't give a sh1t about Chesterfield. They'll do the job, pay their workers, and make a huge profit.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours 

[k4blades]

I wasn't favouring any one idea over another, and certainly wasn't suggesting that there should be a council run venue....I'm not that daft. I was simply making the point, which I think most would agree with, is that we don't want more empty retail units.

[Slacker]

Instead of the 50s or 60s stuff normally playing at past Times at McArthur Glen they had some crappy club type music on today at high volume.

Surely a protest at impending redundancy?

[mycul]

and then still give council employees a pay rise,

Oh yippee, am I getting a pay rise?
News to me, not had one for 2 years and not getting one for another year

[karl1981]

what the council need to do is promote the town more and but on more summer activites for familys instead of them sitting on there arses and drinking tea and eating biscuits at the tax payers exspense

[Pete]

Read a bit of good news today, apparently Bonmarche, the women's clothing store, is not going to be closed after all. The new owners are going to keep it open.

Good news for a few workers there.