Another nail in the coffin

I’ve bought toys there for my dog. The staff so clearly love their work and couldn’t be more helpful.

This is one of those small independent businesses that were praised to the skies by Wiltshire Council planners in their development blueprint, the South Wiltshire Core Strategy, for setting the city apart from its retail competitors.

But its demise was as predictable as it was depressing - and that same council can’t escape its share of the blame.

When I was a Journal reporter, campaigning against the swingeing rises in city centre parking charges imposed by Wiltshire last year, I interviewed one of those staff.

She told me the charges were now equal to a day’s wages a week. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving her car at an unmanned park and ride site, so she had begun driving from Amesbury to a relative’s home in Harnham to park, and walking in from there. There was no criticism of her employer - these were merely the economic facts of life for a retail worker. Now, four jobs will disappear with the shop’s closure.

Its owner has highlighted, among other factors, the loss of free parking spaces in Winchester Street, the zeal of our traffic wardens, and the free Saturday bus service from the city centre to Southampton Road - where there is, of course, a gigantic pet store.

The free buses are part of a Wiltshire Council-backed strategy to reduce congestion on the A36 and encourage shoppers to use the park and ride. These are laudable aims, and many shoppers welcome the scheme.

But we all need to realise there’s no such thing as a free ride. Every “free” trip we take out of the city centre to Superstore Central is another nail in the coffin of Salisbury’s small shops. The kind of shops that used to provide a living for a family. How many out-of-town superstore workers earn enough to support a family? Not many, I bet.

No, the bosses and shareholders of the giant retail chains get richer while the rest of us allow ourselves to be bought off with BOGOFs.

And what of the small independent traders currently in business in The Maltings?

Do you seriously think they will be able to afford the rents in the shiny new redeveloped shopping centre? Maybe those kindly developers will offer them a subsidy? Wake up, Salisbury.

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