Market Street Guildford many empty shops
Repeat of North Street, High Street, upper High Street, photograph empty shops in Market Street.
Market Street links North Street to the High Street.
The level of empty shops in Guildford not at the level of Aldershot, but no other town centre I have visited has this number of empty shops.
Market Street, not far short of half the shops empty. The national average 14.5%.
High rents are a factor across the country, greedy landlords and property developers not recognising retail reality, rents should be going down, instead they are being hiked.
Waterstone’s prime location in the High Street were faced with a massive hike in rent. They walked across the street.
Bamboo Shoots in Jeffries Passage occupied what had been a shop sitting empty for years. Greedy landlord doubled their rent during lockdown. An excellent Chinses restaurant, everything cooked fresh. closed thanks to a greedy landlord. Shop sits empty.
Loakes in Lincoln, just of the High Street, lease about to end, rent doubled, expected to sign a five year lease. No one in today’s economic climate is willing to sign a five year lease. The store closed.
But what makes Guildford worse than elsewhere Experience Guildford and only serves to highlight the failure of Experience Guildford and why it must be wound up.
What can only be described as perverse, Experience Guildford fly post many of the shop windows of the empty shops to highlight the scale of retail devastation.
Experience Guildford and Town Rangers hide behind a faded red door in Tunsgate.
Town Rangers are very rarely seen, if spot one, please take a photo of a rare sighting and post on social media.
If Experience Guildford is not wound up, which is the preferred scenario, then there must be reform, board removed, senior management fired, town rangers fired, and one vote one business.
Are the local community aware Experience Guildford place a levy on every local business in the town centre, a levy in today’s harsh retail environment which local businesses can ill afford, a levy for which they see no return? Are the local community aware of how votes are distributed based on rateable value, corporate chains have more votes even though they have no interest in Guildford other than the wealth they suck out of the town centre? This is like a rigged election in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, fair elections are held, only Putin decides who the candidates will be. Should HSBC have a seat on the board when they finance fossil fuel companies which is contrary to the declaration of Guildford as a green borough?
