Empty shops

I have shown all of these empty shops before individually and I wanted to show them collectively to make a point about the decline of Ham Parade and the chance to fix it that got turned down.

All three of these shops have been empty for some time with little sign that they are coming back to life. And alongside these empty shops there are three charity shops on the Parade which while in use are not regular shops.

 

These unused and little used shops show that Ham Parade is in a bad place and somethign needs to change if it is to thrive again. There was a proposal from Richmond Council to save the Parade by removing the slip roads and pedestrianising the east side. 

Remodelling areas to make more space for people, and a little less for cars, has consistently made those areas more popular with people, brought more footfall and helped the local businesses. It really was the obvious and best thing to do.

 

Sadly Richmond Council treated the consultation as a referendum and they took account of the number of negative voices rather than quality of any arguments they may have had aganst the scheme (there were no good arguments against the scheme). So nothing is going to change and Ham Parade's decline will continue.