Date published: 2005/08/12
The Cambridge Evening News says:
Nearly three in four people shun shopping in Cambridge for elsewhere, according to a News poll.
And city centre bosses admit they are unsurprised by the findings.
The online poll found 73 per cent of people say Cambridge is not their first choice for shopping.
Annette Joyce, Cambridge city centre manager, said she was "not shocked" by the result.
But she said the impending Grand Arcade development - which will house 50 shops on land bounded by Corn Exchange Street, Downing Street and St Andrew's Street - would put Cambridge on the retail map.
She said: "Our reaction to that (the poll) is the development of the Grand Arcade shopping centre which will be open towards the beginning of 2008. Within there, there will be 257,000 sq feet of retail.
"As we work towards 2008 the city will be looking at itself as one of the region's major destinations for shopping. At this stage it doesn't surprise me there are some people erring away from Cambridge.
"In this minor economic recession, people are spending less on retail, which is not unique to Cambridge. There may be a poll saying 73 per cent of people are not happy with the offer, but we have listened to that, which is why all this retail is coming in 2008."
Difficulty in travelling to the city centre and the cost of parking have been cited as reasons why most shoppers would prefer to spend elsewhere.
Lion Yard is the city's most central and costly car park.
A two-hour stay there on a Saturday will put shoppers back £3 during the day and £7.50 for a four-hour shopping spree. In comparison, Peterborough charges £2 for three hours and £3.50 for four - less than half the price of Cambridge.
Paul Necus, head of parking services at Cambridge City Council, defended the charges.
He said: "I do not think what is happening in Cambridge is anything to do with parking or parking charges - there are spaces in most of the car parks most of the time.
"If car parking is such an issue, why are people so keen to park in Lion Yard - one of the most expensive car parks in the city? We have not changed our prices for nearly two years. Whatever people are doing now they have not been put off by parking prices."
Of course online polls are meaningless, since nobody knows how representative the replies are. But it is amusing the way the bureaucrats try and justify that people might be unhappy with shopping in Cambridge. For non-Cambridge residents the number one problem is car parking, which the city has made as expensive and difficult to use as possible. If you treat your customers like that you can hardly be surprised that they do not think much of you.
People are keen to park in Lion Yard because it is just about the only car park where you can easily walk to the shops in the city centre. (There is also Park Street, but the city has made that so inaccessible that most people avoid it now.) It does not mean people are happy with the extortion, it just means (in typical British fashion) they put up with it.
The amount of retail in the city centre is not the issue. There is too much retail in the city centre. It was already horrible struggling along St Andrew's Street as a pedestrian way before the Grand Arcade was starting to be built, and that new mall will only make the situation worse. But of course the Cambridge ruling elite have decided they should force the people to come to the shopping rather than allow the shopping to come to the people. (For example, Arbury Camp in the north and the site of the Trumpington Park and Ride in the south are both natural sites for malls. Instead of driving to a mall in Trumpington the Cambridge ruling elite instead want you to drive to exactly the same site and then take a bus ride all the way into the city centre.)
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