Dorking in hard times - What's new?
This blog was started in 2005 and views of myself and visitors has viewed Dorking as a struggling retailing town. It is amazing to think that we have been through some of the greatest boom years that this country has experienced and yet throughout this period our town has seriously underperformed commercially.
It seems Dorking is being strangled by shops high rental values, an apparent lack of care, and an almost incomprehesible direction as to which shops/pubs are allowed in and which aren't.
Now we are apparently in recession and our economy is definitely in trouble, Dorking is likely to suffer more. Our only hope is the relative wealth in the area to ride this out. I haven't really noticed a downturn in shopping yet, which is being reported on the news.
I noticed that David N pointed out (on here) that Dorking still has so much to offer and I agree. Many people in the country would give anything to live here. It is an attractive town surrounded by beautiful and varied countryside in all directions. Travel links are superb whether you want to go to London, the coast or one of the main UK airports, Gatwick.
I personally think that many aspects of the 'Credit Crunch' are a good thing. As a country, the madness of the past few years had to be halted. House prices had absolutely got out of control as can particularly be seen around Dorking.
Maybe we can only hope that this credit crunch bites some of the so called wealthy landlords around the town and this in turn might show in reduced local retail rental values as they cannot rely on the property price alone.
posted by The Cockerel @ 8:01 AM
5 Comments:
Spot on Cockerel and hopefully the greed which created the current situation will be seen for what it is, counter-productive and ultimately disasterous.
As you say, there's so much going for us here...is it too much to hope to be an oasis amidst the greed? Successful trading, etc. would follow naturally.
The best thing about Dorking is leaving Dorking from the train stations, A24 & A25 - just joking!! I have never seen a town which has so much supposedly going for it in a terminal state of decline. It has always struggled as a town and it is a great shame that town centre management, the council, the Dorking Needs Action group (are they around or have they been wound up like everything else around Dorking?), the residents and the retailers cannot get together and start dishing out some radical policies to get this town moving forward. The longer we procrastinate, the worse things will get in this town and we might even have the misfortune to appear in the tv programme Britain's Worst Towns if we are not too careful -- remember Leatherhead won top prize a few years ago!!
An excellent post written (14th comment) by an ex-shopkeeper under the heading Oxygen St Martins Walk Closed? It gives both sides to the argument and goes into great detail why this town continues to struggle. As for Oxygen, has it closed for good? Did not venture into Dorking this weekend as the weather was bloody miserable and money is a little tight at the moment. Jo
As a commercial property surveyor who has regular involvement in retail property in the town I read this blog periodically as I am interested in the views of users of the town and there has been considerable debate over the retail provsion in town which I find interesting.
Whilst I am have over last few years been dismayed by many of the illinformed and negative comments left on this site until now have not been moved to comment.
To blame the poor state of retailing in the town on "greedy Landlords" and hoping that the credit crunch bites them is onerous, simplistic and disgenerous. The reasons for the town poor retail performance are complex and I have not the time or inclination to debate these here.
Before your tar me with the “greedy estate agents brush”, I act mainly for retail occupiers throughout the region i.e tenants rather than Landlords. I have over the years have advised many clients to take leases in the town and then subsequently been ask to dispose of their interest a year or so later because their operation is not viable in Dorking.
A number of my clients have invested and lost considerable amount money in the town yet trade successfully in similar towns elsewhere.
The fact is the level of retail rents are a function of supply and demand. Whilst in any town there are instances of ill advised tenants agreeing to pay inflated rents to let us say optimistic Landlords but generally these do not buck the market.
In comparative terms, rents in Dorking are lower than towns with a similar population and demographics and this is a reflection of the comparative poor performance of the retail sector not the cause of it.
The reasons for the towns poor retail performance are complex and I have not the time or inclination to debate these here.
How good to find an informed voice contributing their tuppence to the debate. How sad that it isn’t worth more than that because they have neither the time nor the inclination to inform in a way that has clearly been required for some time.
Anecdotal evidence (some from ex-shopkeepers themselves) has long suggested that unrealistic charges were rendering profitability impossible. That in itself justifies ‘The Cockerel’s’ final paragraph though it should be noted that it was part of a general point covering the beneficial effect of the ‘credit crunch’ on all. In that light, his comment was certainly not ‘onerous’ (?), ‘simplistic’, nor ..presumably ‘ingenuous’ was the intended word.
I do hope that we will have the benefits of the wisdom which will explain why, when the truism as reiterated is that ‘the level of retail rents (as anything) is a function of supply and demand’, the numbers of empty shops haven’t created levels which allow his clients to trade successfully.
Is it too much to ask for a few fragments of manna from heaven to help us through the complexities which would explain the substance of the writer's penultimate paragraph? Who knows, it may help to initiate the concerted moves which all must agree are necessary.
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