Muddled Thinking

Remember Clone Town Britain (2005) by The New Economics Foundation (nef)? All right-thinking middle class people agreed with the conclusion that many our towns were dominated by national multiples and this was a Bad Thing. What we really needed was more representation from local independent retailers.

Well nef has recently has recently updated its league tables in Re-imagining the high street - Escape from Clone Town Britain. It asserts that multiple retailers are fair-weather friends, shutting up shop in the recession, leaving holes in the high street. It tells us “The towns most dependent on the biggest chains and out of town stores have proven to be most vulnerable in the economic crisis.”

So what is the UK’s worst clone town (and therefore the most vulnerable in the economic crisis)? Cambridge. Eh? Yes, Cambridge – followed by Exeter.

And who is worst off on the clone town scale in London? The deprived area of Richmond, closely followed by Putney, Hammersmith, Clapham and Hampstead. Meanwhile, the vibrant and fashionable shopping centres of Finsbury Park, Wembley, Shepherds Bush and Brentford are testament to the attraction of a high number of independents.

You may be forgiven for thinking something must be amiss. It is. The nef methodology is severely flawed. The score is assessed by members of the public who look at about 40-60 shops in what they regard as the heart of the high street. The score is calculated by adding the number of different types of shop (irrespective of sample size) to 0.75 times the percentage of independent shops. So if there are 18 different types of shop and 20% are independent, the clone score would be 18 + 0.75 x 20 = 18 + 15 = 33. A low score is “Bad” and a high score is “Good”

This methodology clearly takes no account of size of centre or the affluence of its catchment. So it favours small towns and discriminates against regional centres and large towns with strong secondary areas dominated by independents. The methodology takes no account of the Lanes in Brighton or the Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells. It discriminates against those places where you have clusters of similar shops. (Bad news for Hay-on-Wye.) And it implicitly claims that Torrington in Devon or Finsbury Park offer better shopping than Cambridge or Exeter. We’ve been to all of them and we can say it ain’t so.

So whilst we agree with some of the sentiments in Re-imagining the high street - Escape from Clone Town Britain, many of its conclusions are based on the flawed foundations of its survey methodology.

If you are interested in the dynamics of retailing and the rather schizophrenic approach that government has taken in framing its planning and competition policies take a look at http://www.hewdon.com/retailpolicy.pdf

Clochemerle?

About three years ago, someone in our village suggested that the primary school, which occasionally used our rather remote and barren playing field, needed a couple of toilets to go alongside the tea hut and equipment store.

The parish council took note. Someone else suggested that it might be difficult to raise funds merely for something as mundane as a couple of toilets. Perhaps a small pavilion would appeal more to sponsors? All thought this a good idea, so they set up a funding group under the chairmanship of a parish councillor.

The group started various fund raising events, notably a vintage car show. They began to develop ideas for the pavilion. They commissioned an architect.

Things came to a head a month ago. The committee would not share the plans with the parish council, but insisted they be brought before an open meeting. So the meeting was duly called: it was packed – standing room only. You wouldn’t have seen more people if you had offered free drinks at the Bell.

After a brief introduction by the chair of the parish council, the plans were revealed to gasps from the audience. What started as a little more than a shed, had grown to three thousand square feet with sixteen rooms. The meeting is thrown open to the floor.

“How much will it cost to build?”

“We think about £350,000?”

Does that include fees and siteworks? Where will the money come from?”

“Don’t know about costs, but there are some charities about.”

“Who is going to use it? Our village only has three hundred people – and most of those are over sixty. We cannot raise a five-a-side, let alone a whole football team; the median age of the pub cricket team which plays four games a year is sixty five.”

“Sizewell football club need a temporary pitch for two years.”

“This is madness. It’s like building a factory when you don’t know what things you want to make, how much they will cost, who will buy them and what they will fetch.”

“What we are seeing is the field of dreams approach. If we build it they will flock here.”

“How are people going to get to this pavilion? The field is at the end of a two hundred metre single track lane without passing places? Can we guarantee access for emergency vehicles? Where will people park?”

“These are details that will be ironed out later.”

“Who will run it? How much will it cost to run? How much revenue will it generate? Have you got a business plan? What was the architect’s brief?”

“Taking each question in turn: don’t know; don’t know; don’t know; no; there wasn’t one – we had a brainstorming session to see who might possibly use it.”

Up stands the chair of governors of the school who says she has no idea why anyone thought the school wanted to see the toilets provided. One of the funding committee leaps to his feet, “But the loos are totally inadequate for the car show.”

“But the only reason we have the show is to raise money for the loos.”

The meeting gradually descends into chaos. One villager insists on a show of hands in favour of pursuing the grand design. No one, not even amongst the proponents, raises a hand. Common sense prevails.

So what have we learned from our experience?

1. If you have a community or visitor project, make sure you have a realistic business plan to inform the design brief.

2. Never ever employ an architect without a clear brief.

3. Do not set up committees without reporting structures and clear lines of accountability.

4. Make sure you have the requisite expertise on any committee.

5. Carry all stakeholders with you and keep them fully informed as plans progress.

Remember the Dome – a billion pounds wasted on a politically driven project that was designed before anyone knew what was going in it and anyone had a business plan! The principles hold irrespective of the scale.