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Ghost Towns?


observer

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Noticed Hazel Blears was coming out with more half-baked nonesense the other day in respect to the increasing number of empty shops in Town Centres: open them up for "community use", art galleries etc! :roll: Oh, so that's going to increase the foot-fall is it? :? Errm, so the dead High Street has nothing to do with the era of "out of Town, car borne super-markets; or the concentrating of outlets into shopping malls like Golden Square; the unrestricted development of 24/7 binge drinking haunts; or the current economic depression? :shock::roll:

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Is the Government going to cover the cost of the ruinous empty business premises tax that is currently still in operation? As for 'art galleries' - they would be pretty small ones.

 

When you said "Ghost Towns" I thought you were referring to those villages that have been identified as potential sites for new nuclear reactor facilities - I imagine that there will be a few "For Sale" signs going up there shortly :shock:

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Understand that by and large they are in the vicinity of existing or former nuclear plants....trouble is we don't have enough of our home grown nuclear engineers left to build them.

 

Back on to the subject, interestingly shopping centre developers tend to put up lively panels to hide the fact that some of the units are empty....what they don't do is allow them to be used in way that emphasises the fact that shops are vacant.

 

Good point McBain about the empty business rates...one I made a while go at Full Council....alas it fell on deaf ears.

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I always remember the size of the seagulls at Sellafield when we had to go up there to see our work in progress.... they were huge and their number two's were a strange blue colour. :shock::lol:

 

Guess that doesn't really help promote nuclear enery so I'll shut up now as I may be endangering the chances of a job for someone somewhere down the line :?

 

Back to Business Rates.. GRRRR !!

 

Good point McBain about the empty business rates...one I made a while go at Full Council....alas it fell on deaf ears.

 

Maybe you should try again Paul but a bit louder or in brail :wink:

 

Business Rates are a complete and utter money making scam.... businesses pay a small fortune and get absolutely nothing in return....

 

anyway that aside...

 

Some struggling small businesses are finding themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place as landlords are not allowing them to end their leases early and close due to the fact that the landlord then becomes liable for the business rates it's empty.

 

So the business is forced to continue to trade at a loss just to keep the 'liable' landlord off the hook and the council happy :roll:

 

Rather than coming up with half baked ideas and offering money to turn failed and empty business premises into 'waste of space' community centres and art galleries wouldn't it be a better idea if the idiots in charge actually did something to support and help businesses who may be struggling to stop them being forced to close in the first place.

 

A cut in business rates would be a good start :evil: ... followed by forcing the mega rich utility companies to lower their prices too :evil::roll:

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Buisiness Rates are collected by Local Councils on behalf of Central Government, then (theoretically) redistributed on the basis of the Barnett Formula (theoretically to help the poorest areas). Yes, the High Street could have been given "rate" reductions, providing this was compensated for, by an increased levy on "out of town" retailers, thus providing an incentive to move back into Town Centres. Unfortunatley, the big S/Markets seem to have an inordinant influence on this Government - wonder why?! As for the tax on "empty" properties, this came in (on housing) for the good reason, that they were being kept empty for speculative reasons and properties were lying empty while folk went homeless. :wink:

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When we took our first office in the town centre I actually asked at the council what we actually pay business rates for seeing as we had to pay extra to get the bin emptied.... the answer? "For the privilige of having a business in Warrington"

 

I rest my case!!

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Perhaps the leaseholders of these premises will be paid rent out of funding provided for community facilities...another way of bailing out the private sector by using public funds!

Highering the income tax theshold and increasing the minimum wage so that people in general had more spending power might offer a better solution, but that would mean improving conditions for a section of the population who mean nothing to any of the three major parties.

 

Re the nuclear reactor facilities......has the exact location of the proposed sites been disclosed?

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When we took our first office in the town centre I actually asked at the council what we actually pay business rates for seeing as we had to pay extra to get the bin emptied.... the answer? "For the privilige of having a business in Warrington"

 

I rest my case!!

 

Maybe businesses should move out of Warrington.. do any other areas offer an incentive by way of a short term 'business rates' or 'rent' reductions if you move to your business to their area :wink:

 

Maybe landlords or councils in other areas might consider doing this as more and more of their premises become empty :?

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Perhaps the leaseholders of these premises will be paid rent out of funding provided for community facilities...another way of bailing out the private sector by using public funds!

 

You have a point there.

 

A lot of money is handed over from developers for 'community use' by way of 106 agreements etc from approval of large scale housing developments and the like.... not to mention the other government community type handouts. It all sits in the council's special pots.

 

So money we should all be benefitting from locally could finish up being used in a way that it wasn't really intended for :?

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I think what sits in the council pots will stay in the council pots!

 

What will be bothering the council at present is the fact that businesses are are going to the wall, not because they are concerned about the business owners or their employees, but because they will not be collecting rent or rates on empty properties!

Not being a council which has ever shown much interest before in supplying community facilities it is doubtful they will be spending any of their precious money!

I suspect that any rent they may collect from these properties could be coming from either central government or the EU community funds. Funds which should genuinely help the community and not just be diverted to disguise the councils deficits. :x

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Blimey.... all those posts before someone got around to blaming Maggie.... I'm impressed!!

 

Of course Labour haven't encouraged it one bit during the last 12 years; during which time Tescos have run rough-shod over all sorts of planning problems by providing "Community" projects such as our precious stadium and the promise of a cinema complex in Kidderminster... and then of course the Trafford Centre.... granted ultimate permission by..... yes you guessed it; The Labour Government!!

 

Our own town actively encourage it because they charge for parking and drive trade away to the likes of Trafford Centre

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I said, "the advent" Baz; that didn't presume to excuse the continuation of Maggie's legacy by NuLab - as in many other issues. :roll: If the "out of Town" retail developments hadn't existed, there wouldn't have been an alternative to Town Centres, car parking charges or not. :roll: BTW your right with your examples! :wink:

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I know Obs.... my sister actively campaigned against the Tescos in Kidderminster where she lived for many years until they threw in the cinema deal... at which point the deal was too good for the council to resist!!

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The damage to our Town Centres started with the advent of "out of Town" Super-Markets (under Maggie) - end of. :twisted:

 

Never understand peoples obsession with blaming Maggie for absolutely everything. She 'left' in 1990... that's 19 years ago... enough time for other dimwits to put some of it right :wink:

 

Wonder what people will remember and say about Blair and Brown in 19 years time though. They have really buggered things up :shock::evil::wink:

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:roll: Once a "wrong turn" is taken along the political road, you either have to back track or continue down said road - NuLab CONTINUED down the road set by Maggie's legacy. :roll: Decisions being made now, will impact on future generations, EG; the borrow and spend to get out of the economic hole, will be a burden carried by our grand-children. :shock: SO, the planning policies (or rather lack of them), under the Thatcher Regime, are the cause of dead Town Centres. :shock: This was warned of at the time, as the dead City Centre phenomenon was already occuring in the US at the time. :roll: So do you "get it" now Diz?! :?:wink:
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No Obs... you have got it all wrong. It was Germanys fault for invading Poland; everything wrong with the mid to late 20th century stems from there.

 

and now that they have their way and are a major influence over all of Europe, they finally get their aims.... it just took a bit longer than they originally expected! :lol:

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No you're all wrong. You have to look back to the end of the First World War when Germany was punished by being made to pay punitive reparation. This led directly to the rise if the Nazis and all our troubles since then. Or maybe it was Napoleon's fault :?:? Or perhaps it all stemmed from Harold losing at the Battle of Hastings :?:?

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It's always amusing to see folk struggling with their ignorance and trying to laugh off facts. :roll: FACT: The introduction of (relaxed) planning policies under Thatcher, began the development of "out of Town" S/Markets, incidently this also caused the demise of the "corner shop" - this trend has continued to this day - and one particular S/Market chain is quite adept at bribing local communities in order to circumvent belated "local" planning polices that tried to counter this trend. :roll: Both Tory and NuLab Tories have been complicit in the continuation of this legacy, and a population that has been wedded to the car. :shock: Just to demonstrate my objectivity, this "car borne" fantasy world, was aided and abetted under Labour Governments, that introduced the "New Town" concept, which grafted "new Towns" onto the old, without integrated transport links to the "old Town Centre" and a lack of "corner shops". :roll: Thus, in politics, the sins of the fathers are truly visited upon their children. :roll:

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Or perhaps it all stemmed from Harold losing at the Battle of Hastings :?:?

 

Problem was, Harold couldn't see it coming. :wink:

 

Well Gordon will be well knackered.... he's only got one good one to start with... and even that one is a bit woggly!!

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