How do we stop

the shopping rot?

On Friday, we mentioned the closure of Morrison’s supermarket in the “Boston Shopping Park” and the Tesco One Stop Shop on Wide Bargate.

Since then there has been news of another possible closure after shoe shop Brantano called in the receivers.

Were the store to close, the outlook will be bleak for the six-acre shopping park which was built in 2006 on the former ASDA site.

The loss of Morrison’s is the key blow, as a supermarket generally creates the footfall that helps the other outlets.

Without Brantano, the site would be left with a bingo hall, a Bath Store, Home Bargains, Sports Direct, TK Maxx, and a Card Factory shop scarcely a magnet for shoppers.

Yesterday, we visited another shopping park – 30 minutes down the road – at Springfields near Spalding, which opened in May 2004, just three years before the Boston development.

What a contrast – 750 parking places costing £1 for up to two hours and £2 for the day – more than 55 shopping outlets and an on-site hotel.

We arrived a quarter of an hour after opening time, and struggled to find a parking space.

The question has been asked before: How is it that just down the road, developments such as this thrive, whilst Boston has nothing remotely comparable?

Allegedly, Boston Borough Council has an economic development team. And, of course, we are seeking a £65k a year Head of Service, Economic Regeneration – a poisoned chalice if ever there was one.

But is all this too little, and too late?

In overall terms, successive administrations have done little for Boston other than write snappy sounding slogans in the endless reports that have been produced.

What of the future?  

It looks as though there is little chance of a new business coming to the former Magnadata site, as the company wants to demolish it and build more than 200 houses.

If the Quadrant proposal goes ahead in Wyberton, hundreds more houses will be built – and many other applications are in the pipe-line around the borough

But where will the occupants of these houses find work?

A final irony that we noted was an application by Kentucky Fried Chicken to remove its existing shop front and reinstate the “historic timber shop front.”

Doubtless, the money to fund this will come from Worst Street’s “partnership” with Historic England to fund improvements to owners or leaseholders of historic buildings with shop fronts in the Market Place conservation area.

The owners of the former Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop have already cashed in on this generous scheme.

But should we not ask why a company like KFC – whose UK and Ireland revenues are almost £1bn – should tart up their shop using our money?

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