Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Parking controls: the need for some relief for our High Streets
MANY longer-term Haringey residents will have patronised, or at least know of Thomas Brothers, the big hardware store near the Archway junction.
This shop has supplied the community with advice, knowledge, hand & power tools, machinery & gardening equipment and dealt in timber, hardware, brass foundry and ironmongery – since 1920.
At 798-804 Holloway Road (N19 3JH), it's in Islington Borough.
After 93 years of service, this traditional store will close its doors shortly after the London local elections.
I saw the shopkeepers on Friday.
Draconian parking restrictions, enforced with a nearby camera have, almost literally, driven customers away. Now, the shop is closing, not because of a lack of demand for DIY material, but principally because of parking policies, where local councils appear to care nothing for small businesses.
Unlike say a coffee shop or a restaurant – or betting shop – DIY customers need to park close-by to take away and load large and/or heavy items. Some relief would be afforded by a policy allowing for the first 30 minutes of parking to be free.
After more than nine decades, the shop is now in the last days of its Closing Down Sale. It is sad and a couple of customers have separately told me its a tragedy.
Traditional businesses on our High Streets are being strangled and local councils do not care.
Disclosure:
I am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party
Tags for Forum Posts: DIY, Thomas, brothers, hardware, parking
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Tie up to the Old Well.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Alan can I suggest you go and see, i.e. talk to the people whom you appear to make light of, who are being driven out of business?
When I said that the customers are being driven away, you mustn't think they're not buying the DIY goods they seek: they're driving further to chain stores, with plenty of land for free car parking, or even out-of-town. You can't carry much in a gondola.
From several points of view, it's better if people, including motorists, wherever possible shop locally, including from an environmental viewpoint.
Thomas Brothers are unlikely to be replaced.
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Yes, Clive, it's true that I haven't been to see and talk to the owners of Thomas Brothers. But do you seriously think that over sixteen years as a councillor I've never been to talk to traders about parking issues? Don't you understand that one of the reasons I'm opposed to the Kober/Goldberg/Strickland Tory Regeneration plans is precisely that they are destroying some viable small businesses?
Have you actually read and reflected on the report LSquared referred to? Or read and considered other influential reports - for example the Portas Review and the outcome of various pilots?
Be honest, now. Surely you don't really believe that thirty minutes free parking is the one-size-fits-all solution which will save High Street businesses? Highgate electors will expect more from their councillors than simply repeating LibDem soundbite slogans. I suggest you urgently start demonstrating that you can think for yourself.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Alan, I don't believe that 30 minutes free parking would be a panacea. If you noticed the thread title, it's about the need for some relief.
Whether we like it or not, people will continue to own cars, continue to want to buy bulky or heavy DIY items and continue to drive further away to load them at locations where they're not at risk from swingeing and unreasonable fines.
Highgate High Street: Haringey council camera car moving away from photographer
I understand from shopkeepers in Highgate High Street the wider effect of the Haringey Council camera car. This car regularly perches by a bus stop c. 75 metres back from a no-right-turn intersection, with its periscope ready to snap offenders.
The Officers appear not to be interested in any parking offences in the immediate area. However, the mere presence of this lurking car is believed to drive away custom generally. It's a great way to choke general demand and damage local business.
Some of the otherwise local patrons are likely to drive along the North Circular to shop at Brent Cross.
Due to the increasing dependence of the council from revenue from fines, the impression given is that the council prefers to issue fines rather than to actually stop people from turning right into Pond Square.
(Highgate residents rightly expect a great deal from their counciilors, as shown by the results of the last several elections)
Disclosure:
I am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party
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Clive, I see you didn't bother reading and reflecting on anything which may challenge the Party soundbites you dutifully recite. Ah well, Highgate will struggle through.
"Increasingly in recent times we have come first to identify the remedy that is most agreeable, most convenient, most in accord with major pecuniary or political interest, the one that reflects our available faculty for action; then we move from the remedy so available or desired back to a cause to which that remedy is relevant." — J.K. Galbraith: 'The Convenient Reverse of Logic in Our Time'.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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For a moment, think of the areas in London that are commercial successful as far as shopping goes. The West End, Shoreditch, Camden Town, Knightsbridge, Kensington High Street (Wood Green High Road I may also venture) None of them are street parking friendly and many streets in these areas do not allow parking at all. It''s the mix and type of shops, restaurants and other amenities that make them places want to go and spend their money. Also, if you look at them on a map, they all have easy access to public transport.
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You too, Michael? Daring to suggest that evidence, case studies, research and other such anathemas and false doctrines should be preached in the holy temple of Haringey politics?
One of my favourite fables is still the blind men and the elephant. In Haringey our Council and its "Leaders" believe the elephant to be a giant egg and they angrily debate which end to break it.
Begone heretic!
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My failing Alan. At work someone once referred to me as "that man who likes spreadsheets".
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Permalink Reply by AndrewAW1 on
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I opened this expecting totally the opposite argument, that our High Streets are clogged with traffic and parked cars and better parking controls were needed to solve the problem.
It's unfortunate that the Lib Dems appear to have nailed their colours to the mast so firmly with this one as it seems to have limited the ability to debate the point. I also questioned this policy (mainly querying how it related to the purported commitment to cycling) with reference to similar studies and, although I am happy the time was taken to respond to me, a similar response was received with anecdotes from local businesses being referenced rather than any form of detailed study.
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Things that would tempt me to shop in Green Lanes (if I didn't already)
Busses that don't take forever to get up from Manor House or down from Turnpike Lane because the traffic is reduced to a single lane
Pavements that were clear of the clutter that more and more shops spread across the footpath
Shop keepers who keep tha footpath in front of their store clean (some do and I intend to have my nail extensions eyebrow threading done at them)
Not going home stinking of vehicle fumes
Being able to cross the road without the crossing being taken over by drivers who think red lights are purely decorative
Seats (partial tick) and trees (partial tick)
Drivers not doing a three point turns
Motorcycles that don't have special exhausts fitted with 200w amplifiers
Sort that out and you've got my vote, except I've already sent in my postal one.
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Permalink Reply by JulieB on
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Exactly Michael, I totally agree with all your points.
If local high street shops/restaurants cater for the local population then we shouldn't need to drive to them. Or if we do need to drive to pick up heavy stuff then we can use our residents parking.
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And businesses for which heavy items are a big proportion of their business can offer same day local delivery. There's a garden shop in Hornsey which does this, and the result was we arrived on bikes yet spent 100s of pounds in one visit.
From the businesses' POV, one 30 minute parking space gives them 1 customer every 15-30 minutes. Use the same space for two delivery vans each doing a run every 30 minutes and they can be servicing a steady stream of people. If there's not enough business to justify the van, share it with the shop next door, and the one next door to that.
I really value local shops with skilled staff and I do feel sorry for businesses who cannot see a way forward that isn't dependent on customers in cars, but if the trade-off is continuously worsening traffic choked streets where no one wants to play, chat or just sniff the roses, and where thousands of people killed or seriously injured every year...well when there are already viable alternatives I think that's just too high a price.
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