Wight Portal For The Isle of Wight Community

The Council have started down the rejuvenation  road again. A few years ago the then Council spent a fortune deciding what land would be suitable for what purpose, commercial, industry or housing ETC.

This time it has pinpointed certain areas where it believes rejuvenation is needed. These are basically Newport, East and West Cowes, Sandown and Shanklin and on their website they have opened it up to public debate.

In an article titled Jacey's Answer I take the role of Prime Minister. Here I outline what I believe is the biggest problem the Island's economy has and suggest a way to rectify it.

The Island has always had it's own individuality. Coming here you can leave the hustle and bustle of Mainland life at whichever ferry port you choose to get here. This  alone is an asset Island businesses can bank on through tourism, which is the mainstay of the Island's economy.

The word rejuvenation smacks of modernisation and bringing the Island more into line with the Mainland. Over the years and through successive administrations, anyone who has been here either all or most of their lives, have witnessed the changes implemented that has lead to the erosion of our individuality. We no longer have the 'Butcher, baker, candlestick maker', they have been replaced by the stack it high sale cheap system of retail, described by the powers that be who let them in, as giving us choice, but this only really blinkers the fact that it has robbed us of our once thriving high street businesses, run by and owned by locals.

This isn't just happening here though, the Mainland high streets have also been hit by the building of their out of town retail parks. What was unfortunate though was the rot never set in on the Mainland quick enough for our powers that be to witness so as to avoid the same mistake.

Before 1979/80 in Newport, when the multi storey car park was built with the supermarket known at the time as Mainstop underneath, we in Newport had a choice. We had the 'Butcher, baker, candlestick maker', run by Islanders in the high street alongside 3 supermarkets and everyone was making a living. Now Newport with it's 3 large supermarkets the choice is an illusion of marketing, a few quid saved in one this week, the following week it's the rival's turn.

Of all the towns on the Island as this situation stands, Newport's high street does do better than most others. The majority of Ryde shoppers for instance use Tesco, miles from the high street. Sandown has it's Morrison's with it's convenient cheaper fuel for the car.
Other towns, such as those in the West Wight, East and West Cowes fair worse still, as most workers commute by car to work and so use their town's high street even less, doing their shopping after work or during lunch breaks at the nearest supermarket to them.

Sustainable employment is supposedly the local authority's goal. But by allowing these one stop, buy everything you need under one roof  retailers in, the employment market becomes limited to shelf stacking and checkout operators. Both needing supplementing with benefits, that surely is defeating the object.

The UK as a whole is sunk when it comes to the manufacturing industry. We now import British invented goods that are produced elsewhere to fill our shop shelves. Two examples come to mind, Dyson vacuum cleaners and Bayliss' dynamo technology, wind up radios and torches among other innovations, there are no doubt others.
This only leaves the tourist, financial and other service industries left to employ the masses.

Here on the Island we have the same, not the financial side so much though. But the retail service   within the tourist industry is the Island's bread and butter. Hotels, guest houses, gift shops, all rely on the tourist to survive. The retail sector in all other goods has been stripped away by the influx of supermarkets, they cannot be competed with on a level playing field by the small business.

To rectify this is quite simple. Apart from Newport, that has turned into a nightmare, at the moment each Island town has at least one proper sized  supermarket within, or at least near the proximity of the high street. In alphabetical order we have or are on the verge of having the following supermarkets:

Asda – If planning is granted on the BAE site in Cowes.

Co-op – This firm has now taken over the Somerfield's brand and has stores in most high streets.

Morrison

Sainsbury

Tesco

Waitrose – The much awaited by many, too blind to see the damage it will do, addition to East Cowes.

These are the 6 big players. We need only 1. This one supermarket will live in a proper normal sized high street location in each town. The vote goes to public referendum, you the shopper decide who packs up and leaves and who stays.

This simple measure brings back the high street allowing new shops to start up and compete. Shops that are needed in a high street, not half a dozen mobile phone retailers, hairdressers and cafes like Newport but the 'Butcher, baker, candlestick maker', like yesteryear all run by local business owners.

The profit in retail is huge here on the Island, if it wasn't Mainland chains wouldn't be setting up here and the local college wouldn't have the subject on it's curriculum.

Let's reclaim our high streets  as our own.