St Margarets shops buck the recession (From This Is Local London)

St Margarets shops buck the recession

11:00am Sunday 22nd November 2009

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Every empty shop in St Margarets has been filled – but calls have come for the council to do more to help recession-hit traders.

Mrs Moon, a speciality yarn and haberdashery shop in Crown Road, became the 55th business to open in St Margarets – filling every available store.

But Zac Goldsmith, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park, called on Richmond Council to provide free short-term parking in shopping areas to help firms survive and suggested the appointment of retail area champions.

Mr Goldsmith – who established the Support Our Small Shops (SOSS) campaign group – is supporting an initiative in Barnes which has seen a landlord hand over his empty store on High Street to be filled with work by photographers and artists.

The initiative, called pop-up shops, is being run by Andrea Craig, of SOSS, who said it would “demonstrate to prospective tenants how vibrant the space can become”.

Artist Matthew Butterfield said it was a “thrilling initiative” and a percentage of the revenue generated will be donated to Greener Upon Thames, which is campaigning to phase out plastic bags from Richmond and Kingston.

Mr Goldsmith said: “Artists will be able to show their work, a depressing empty space will come to life and we will be able to highlight two very important campaigns – helping our shopping areas stay vibrant and survive the recession.”

Councillor Stephen Knight, Richmond Council deputy leader, said the authority had already introduced 20p for 20 minutes parking in all on and off-street parking spaces, and a fee of £1 for more than three hours parking on Thursdays.

He said: “Our town centres have seen a small drop in the number of empty premises during the last few months, which is encouraging news and shows traders believe this is a good borough.”

As well as every St Margarets shop being occupied, council research showed the 121 empty shops in the borough’s main centres earlier in the year is down to 104.

Coun Knight added: “The recession is having an impact in the borough, but I’m pleased to say there are less empty shops here than there are nationally, and in the rest of London.”

The Richmond and Twickenham Times revealed earlier this month how the council was spending £15,000 decorating the windows of closed shops to brighten up high streets, and Coun Acton said the authority has slated nearly £5,000 to help promote business in Whitton.

For information about shops and business in St Margarets, visit myst margarets.com, council advice is also available at richmond.gov.uk/business.

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