It is easy to appreciate, as one wanders amongst the empty shops and dilapidated buildings in Dumbarton Town Centre that regeneration is a significant challenge. Attempts to regenerate and revitalise the town have been going on for twenty years or so.
Some initiatives have had merit, others have not.
There was the ‘Action Plan’ Rediscovering Dumbarton, published in 2001.
It promised a revitalised and regenerated town with a sense of place and civic pride within five years.
It is fair to say that the action plan didn’t just fail to deliver that promise, it achieved the complete opposite, as shops continued to close and their vacant properties failed to be reoccupied.
Certain closures like those of The Co-op store, Woolworths, Currys, Scottish Power, Burtons and Malcolm Campbell were the result of large companies either ceasing to trade taking decisions to cease trading in small towns like Dumbarton.
Others like Durham Pine, B Line, Lomond Hardware, Think Cards, The Sports Shop, Spar, Gear Change and Caulfields Fruit Shop, Gallaghers Fishmonger and Wallace Butcher were simply not making enough to continue.
I wrote here about the big idea in the plan which was traffic management/pedestrianisation. Nothing wrong of course with trying to make traffic move more freely around the town. The problem was that the five different ideas which were put forward considered the objective as a traffic movement project, and despite the stated aim of regeneration, disregarded entirely the economic viability issues which would arise.
There was a public consultation. Here is the result of that consultation on each of the five plans.
And here is a breakdown of those results. A mark of 1 expressed a strong dislike of each plan through to 6 expressing a strong like.
Option 3 was a one way system for buses and taxis only to be admitted to the High Street during peak business hours. It was later changed to a two way system, a modification I understand which was requested by the bus companies. This option in consultation had been rejected by a ratio of 4:1. Whilst 7% expressed a strong liking for the scheme, 58% were strongly against it.
In terms of popularity it was up there with the poll tax. Local traders were dismayed when this scheme was implemented in 2005 and with good reason. It did nothing to address the parking shortfall which had been identified as far back as 1985.
Car borne families which the action plan hoped would be encouraged on to buses, simply set off in their cars for alternative destinations. The drop in footfall gave the town a ‘dead’ ambience. Nature abhors a vacuum and the space vacated by shoppers gradually became occupied by anti social elements who took ownership of the town. This ‘side effect’ of diminishing safety and security had already been seen in Paisley where a similar scheme had been implemented. One customer’s comments highlighted this issue.
By 2008 Dumbarton, far from being revitalised and regenerated, had the highest square footage of unoccupied retail space in Scotland. Between 2005 and 2008 when the town should have been regenerating due to the action plan, it was dying. Businesses closed and weren’t replaced.
In June 2008 we published results of a survey undertaken amongst our 65 members at that time Of the 58 forms returned, every single one opposed the scheme. Not one business owner or manager was happy with it.
Soon afterwards the council commissioned a viability study by consultants MVA to reopen the street. Again it was not the solution we sought. To allow traffic to flow as before the road would have to be widened as before. Of course we had campaigned not to have the road narrowed in the first place but it seemed we were now stuck with it.
We recommended a one way system which at least partially addressed the parking shortfall and the issue of buses meeting head on. We still believe that a one way system would address the congestion issue whilst not further harming the economic viability of the town centre.
It is particularly disappointing therefore to find out that one councillor, without any consultation with Town Centre businesses intends to try to reintroduce the failed bus and taxi option again. He is a member of the town centre forum and I would have readily entered a dialogue on the subject.
However it seems he is determined to seek reinstatement and once again ignore the wishes of the providers of over 400 jobs in Dumbarton.
To put it bluntly the remaining businesses in Dumbarton Town Centre are on their knees.
We need a lift.
We need encouragement.
Sadly as a result of the councillor’s move at least one trader whose lease end is approaching has decided not to sign a new one. Another who was ready to invest a considerable sum in his business has decided to wait and see what happens.
I was speaking to William Wilkie of Wilkie and Rider the other day. He was dismayed that the buses and taxis option was once again on the agenda. “We just can’t withstand anything else” he said.
From my own point of view, our shop being the anchor store at the west end of the town, were we to pull out, it is hard to imagine what business could survive in that premises.
The annual rent is £25,000, rates £12,000 and rising, wages and employment costs £40,000 with another £10,000 of annual costs. Around THREE TIMES these amounts have to go through the till simply to pay these bills.
I am a resourceful businessman.
I am NOT a magician.
Should the buses and taxis plan be introduced once again, I don’t think there will be a single business who will not be thinking that this may be the last straw.
Hopefully common sense will prevail and a workable traffic and parking solution found to contribute to the regeneration of the town.
The alternative is I’m afraid too painful to contemplate.
Robert Ryan
