North Street Guildford empty shops
A repeat of the exercise of Tuesday, today photograph the empty shops in North Street.
I did not count, but I find as the High Street, many empty shops.
North Street runs parallel to the High Street.
Today busy, market day, other days quiet.
What can only be described as perverse, Experience Guildford fly post empty shop windows to highlight the scale of retail devastation. Not as bad as Aldershot, but far worse than any town centre I have visited.
Experience Guildford and Town Rangers hide behind a faded red door in Tunsgate.
Sightings of Town Rangers are very rare, if spot one please take a photo 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?
Surrey Advertiser, ironically today’s edition, has finally woken to the the scandal on their doorstep. Will they act for local businesses and campaign for Experience Guildford to be wound up, or at the very least to be reformed?
Next visit, upper end of High Street to document the empty shops.
