Week in Westminster

As ever Westminster this week was a mixture of political theatre epitomised by Prime Minister’s Questions and serious debate such as Care of the Dying, Access to music venues for deaf and disabled people, Maternity Services, Funding for Tennis, Melanoma, the Daylight Saving Bill, the Northern Railway Hub, and the Prohibition of Keeping Primates as Pets – and that’s just a tiny sample.

The Care of the Dying debate was tucked away in Westminster Hall on a Tuesday morning and, I suspect, has received little national media coverage. The main emphasis was on palliative care and many members took advantage to draw attention to the work of the Hospice Movement. I did just that and acknowledged the wonderful work that our own St. Andrew’s Hospice does.

I visited them just a couple of weeks ago and witnessed some of the love and care that exists there. St. Andrew’s is held in great affection by the local community as is shown by their generosity in support of the many fund-raising events that are necessary to keep it afloat.

The State of our Shopping Centres and High Streets was an important debate that emerged from the Government commissioned Report authored by Shops Queen Mary Portas. I have to say that I was not greatly impressed by it. Having served many years as a councillor I have heard it all before. The Report was really a good-practice guide; a collection of schemes and initiatives that have been tried in towns up and down the country. Some will work others will be complete failures depending on different circumstances.

The High Streets debate was, yet again, another opportunity for members to draw examples from their own constituencies about the successes and failures of town centres and the curses and benefits of out-of-town centres.

In Cleethorpes we are fortunate in having St. Peter’s Avenue and Sea View Street which give a nice mix and attract thousands every week. But only a mile or two away at Hewitt’s Circus there’s the Superstore and some other retailers surrounding it. Have we got it right? It’s not possible to deny that customers flock to these out-of-town centres and to have retained a vibrant traditional high street means we have probably got the mix about right.

Whether this was by accident or design is debatable. The then Cleethorpes Council rejected the Tesco development at Hewitt’s Circus which was approved by a government inspector. Conduct any survey and the result will almost always show a majority against out-of-town centres and massive support for traditional high streets. Where then do the thousands who go to out-of-town centres come from?

Shopping habits have changed and we must recognise this. We certainly need less shop units and need initiatives to rid ourselves of many of the empty units within the many parades of shops that line so many of our streets.

I suspect it will be another Report to line the shelves of councils and government departments. The customer is king; if we collectively shop at the supermarkets and increase internet buying our shops will slowly die.

I concluded my speech by referring to the demise of the Past Times chain of shops:

“Past Times went into administration a day or two ago; we must hope that high streets do not belong to times past.”