Town centre crisis

I am a small business owner and have enjoyed being at the centre of the local community for more than 30 years. However, with recent developments in the town, the prospect of being able to serve this community for much longer is diminishing.

Local, family-run businesses have always suffered competition from supermarkets but have taken on the challenges, diversified and improved in order to keep the customer’s best needs at heart. The issue now is not competition from supermarkets but from an incompetent council.

The problems began with the closure of the library on Pickwick Road. Positioned perfectly in the centre of town, the library was a hub of activity: young and old enjoyed the use of its facilities and expertise of the staff. When the library was moved away, immediately footfall in the town centre fell. Furthermore, after the library area was unnecessarily boarded up, there was also nowhere for those who wanted to pop by and support local businesses by buying a pint of milk, a newspaper or a freshly baked loaf of bread to park their cars without having to pay a disproportionate parking charge.

This removal of much needed facilities has severely affected business. However, the next decision has had an even greater effect: the closure of Natwest Bank and the subsequent removal of the cashpoint outside of it (without any prior notice).

Not all small local businesses have card machines to accept payment due to the high bank charges associated with them and so they have relied on customers being able to access the cashpoint and get cash out. The cashpoint was removed and installed next to two existing cashpoints in the town centre without any consultation to local businesses. As a convenience store, I would have been happy to accommodate the cashpoint. if we had been involved in the decision making of our local area.

The cashpoint is now ‘conveniently’ located away from a main road, where no passers by will be able to stop and is also near to the supermarket. Many customers, as they have to go to the cashpoint, now stop in at the nearby supermarket for their shopping instead of supporting local businesses. We cannot blame the customers, we are all busy people and if you are having to pay to park and use the relocated cash point, it is more convenient to use the supermarket instead of having to go out of the way to support family run shops. Even the weekly outdoor market is diminishing. It is entirely the fault of a short-sighted council/corporate business sector.

As a result of the challenges set by Wiltshire Council, businesses will start failing and people will lose their jobs and livelihoods.

Our footfall alone is down by 2,000 over each of the last two months compared to the same periods last year, a trend which, if it continues, will lead to only one outcome for our shop.

Many local businesses have closed in Corsham over the past year or so and many more will be following in their footsteps if something is not done about the issues we all face. Recent decisions show Wiltshire Council’s incompetence and they do not suffer due to the loss of business rates as these have to be paid by landords/property owners even if premises are empty. All of these services could be helped if Corsham residents were provided with somewhere convenient to get cash and park for a few minutes without a charge.

Corsham is a beautiful town and we have been lucky enough to have many diverse places to shop but this is gradually reducing. We should value Corsham's variety and ensure that we retain it for our future generations rather than becoming another nondescript town. For a town that sells itself as a bustling market town, there will soon be no bustle and it will be reduced to a ghost-town.

The local businesses of Corsham are appealing to our customers to keep supporting local business in the face of reckless decisions made by the council designed to serve us.

Dawn Prewett, Owner of Oakley’s Spar (Chaplin’s), Corsham.