Every closed shutter on Cornmarket brings the same lament, that the town centre is finished and someone should do something. It is worth saying plainly: the someone is us, and the something is our custom.
Kelverton has not been abandoned by trade so much as by habit. It is easier to drive to the ring road, easier still to order online, and the independent baker or ironmonger cannot compete on either price or convenience. What they offer instead is a town that stays a town.
Three things that would actually help
- Longer stays: an hour of free parking would cost the council little and change behaviour.
- Honest rents: landlords sitting on empty units are part of the decline, not bystanders to it.
- Our own choices: a weekly shop kept local, even in part, is worth more than any strategy document.
None of this is romantic and none of it is quick. But a high street is not a heritage exhibit to be preserved; it is a set of small businesses that live or die on whether people walk through the door. This week, in Kelverton, some of them still can.
Related: Opinion · market traders' shared stall trial
Further reading: High street decline
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