Empty Shops of Waterlooville in May 2017

Brantanos goes into administration

Having ripped apart Waterlooville shopping centre a number of years ago, Brantanos has itself gone into failure mode.

Waterlooville once had about half a dozen or so shoe shops, in fact Subways is now in the location of one of them. When Brantanos appeared in the retail park all but two of the shops closed down. A combination of Havant Borough Councils mismanagment and the greed of retail park developers allowed Brantanos to plonk itself outside the shopping centre.

Consumer choice and hence competition was reduced locally.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/business/budget-shoe-store-chain-with-shop-in-waterlooville-goes-into-administration-1-7901000

Waterlooville Christmas 2016

The flats that are replacing Swiss Cottage are near completion, solar panels mounted on the roof:

Old post office building still derelict.

Shops empty:

Betting shop takes prime position, flats replace office space in the background:

The Waterlooville story continues with mixed fortunes. The overall picture though is one of empty retail properties.

Pigeon and youth problems in Waterlooville

There is a growing pigeon and youth problem in Waterlooville shopping centre (on top of the issue of the charity shop and cafe issues).

Pigeons
Over a number of years now the pigeon population has been growing.

You may say "wait a minute, aren't you a supporter of the environment?"

Well that would be true, but that doesn't make me an animal rights supporter. UK pigeons are goften not native, they have migrated across Europe over the centuries and decades then settled here. We have a lot of problems with our activities causing extinctions of many species and that issue is getting worse, in the case of pigeons our activities are also causing a problem with an expansion of species. So in both cases extinctions and growth of various species are a result of our own growth and influence.

Youths
There is a distinct problem of male youths gathering in significant numbers in Waterlooville early in the evening. Initially they congregated around Subway in small groups, the food outlet appears to be popular with school children and teeneagers, for some time Subway also wasn't kept very clean and by evening time the floor was often littered with food packaging and remnants of food. My last visit suggested it was cleaner, but that was just one visit, the staff in the outlet is generally young and maybe the work ethic was not there.

Anyway a digress, a bigger problem  appears to be intimidating males youths on their cycles and walking around the town centre in the early evening. I walked past the centre at about 18:00 recently and there were about a dozen youths larking about, one of them was kick boxing with another youth.
On another evening I noticed a police car had been parked outside Lloyds bank, it was empty and I assume it was there to send a psychological message.

It appears to be clear that in common with other shopping centres in Havant Borough, Waterlooville is potentially declining further. The centre still manages to maintain some character, but it is close IMO to an irreversible decline. Pigeons and larking youths just add to the issues.

On a brighter note...

Improved pedestrian and cycle path

It's good to see that all the complaints about the pedestrian path/route through the Waterlooville Wellington Retail Park that I made on this blog over the years have been addressed.

See this speculative blog post that I made a few months ago (which includes links to other blog posts on the subject):

http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/a-real-path-at-wellington-retail-park.html

The path is now raised and has a curb, it also has had the number of exists/entrances that cut through the path reduced, making it far more acceptable as a way of getting into Waterlooville on foot.
As well as those practical features, there are also big 'planters' with trees and a few seats placed along the path (street furniture).

Addition (9/8/15): I should also add that the upgraded path was essential to improve access to Waterlooville for those using mobility scooters. The improved path ties in with the building of the new ramp. Previously mobility scooter users had a long tortuous route that took them around the town centre and pass the fire station.

So why did it take so long to fix it?

It has been wrong for as long as this blog has been going, why didn't they do this from the start?

Plus - it of course doesn't fix the problem that the retail park was a bad idea from the start and has helped to ruin our town centre.

A real path at Wellington Retail Park??

After years of battling with cars trying to find a parking space at Wellington Retail Park, it looks like
pedestrians and cyclists trying to cross the numerous car park entrances and exists are going to get a proper path, with curbs??

At least I think this is going to be a path??
Feel free to post a comment if you know better.

Related blog posts:
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/chaos-at-retail-park.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/waterloovile-pedestrian-access.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/salvador-caetano.html
http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/paints-and-belligerent-car-drivers.html

Sainsburys update

Sainburys large store (above) is due to open this winter. My mother who once didn't really mind or understand it's impact is now of the same view as me. It will have a negative impact on Waterlooville. What Havant Borough Council and others choose to ignore is that it effectively disrupts the flow of activity that was once present along Hambledon road into Waterlooville and effectively adds another 'block' to the traditional access of Waterlooville. The view is that Waterlooville will be cut off because many now won't bother going into the centre, especially in from the Hambledon road route.

The history of development and the cut off of Waterlooville started when the bipass was built and Hambledon road was cut off just below St Georges church. Following that event, Havant Borough Council sold the part of Hambledon road servicing Wadham Stringers to private investors. This eventually led to the retail park being developed and the road being turned into a feeder to the retail car park (above)

And so Havant Borough Council continues it's anti-local business agenda that supports mass car use and the monopolies of big business. In the photo above is Sainsburys attempt - that is fully supported by the council- to provide access to cyclists and pedestrians. The fact is it highlights the pro-car agenda the council has. The car park is a nightmare to get through for pedestrians and cyclists even now years after it was created and the ramp is just another meandering attempt to bodge another solution.

Pedestrians and cyclists are the leaders of sustainability and healthy life styles that reduce costs for the council, yet Havant Borough Council continue to push the car onto us with ideological intensity.

Sad news in Waterlooville

Big old tree chopped down in Waterlooville:

Bad news. An establshed Waterlooville street tree has been felled. Photo of the Monterey Pine taken a few years ago. pic.twitter.com/HkE2AF8I42
— Havant Borough Trees (@HBTreeWardens) June 20, 2014

Also the Waterlooville Model Shop has closed.
The notice in the shop window says that the lease ran out and Paul the owner is looking for premises in Portsmouth. Sort of sums up Waterlooville, greedy landlords are shaping our future along with supporting councillors. What happened to the Conservatives 'localism' agenda? we seem to have the locally run councils just implementing the national government policies. The exact opposite of what they claimed localism is about.

Sainsburys chop down trees for a petrol station

As Waterlooville is being turned into a building site (thanks to the Conservatives dumping any ideas of being environmentally aware) Sainsburys is duplicating Asdas actions by chopping down green things so that they can build a petrol station. This time it is trees that were originally a part of an old and established hedgerow that ran along the original path of Hambledon Road.

As a part of the plan to build a big store, Sainsburys is 'upgrading' the roundabout, thus allowing more cars to interfere with the pedestrian route into Waterlooville. Both the petrol station and roundabout developments have resulted in numerous trees being felled and ground being laid to waste.

Both Asda and Sainsburys seem to have plans for increasing green house gas emissions in the area, supported by the Brown party, namely The Conservatives.

Asda put fuel sales before plant life

In the race to supply fossil fuels to the public and with the prospect of Sainsburys building a petrol station to compliment their new store, Asda has built a petrol station in the car park near the Asda store.
The car park has had thick vegetation and trees planted around the perimeter to visually hide it from public view and this has worked for many, many years. The West of Waterlooville has been quite green with vegetation for a long time now, but it seems that marketing, bad planning and profiteering is overriding common sense.

The 'hedgerow' that once surrounded the car park has now been thinned out, but not thinned all around the car park, just the bit that was hiding the Petrol station from public view. From the photo you can see the vegetation at the back is thicker than in the forground. To the right you can see the roof of the petrol station, the vegetation has been cleared so that cars approaching Waterlooville along the dual carriageway can see the Petrol station.

It's sad, but this imitates the larger picture we have today, where the environment is not integrated into economic, community and political thinking. A large American corporation is putting petrol sales and the production of green house gas emissions above wider community interests and the environment.

The silly thing is that it is far more noticeable because they only thinned out a section that was clearly blocking drivers views of the Petrol station!

It's a pity that Asda can find the money to chop down bushes and other vegetation, but can't find the money to pick up the garbage dropped by it's shoppers and is a direct result of their operational policies.

But then their corporate mentality and the people they employ at the top are not interested in integrating nature into their business model.

Hurray - free plastic bags to be phased out!

Big reductions in this from 2015 onwards!

I started this blog because I was fed up with seeing plastic bags stuck in hedgerows and trees.

Today the news is that the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have agreed that plastic carry bags should be charged for from 2015 onwards.

We just need Labour to agree to the same policy now.

In Wales the 5p plastic bag tax has reduced use by 75%

The Boulevard - Waterlooville

Are we at a tacky holiday camp?	No more Baytree Bookshop
No more Self Fit	No more ??
Pop up shop fills space for a a while	Superficial improvements crumble
Detail of original brick wall	British weather is no friend of dumb paint schemes

Waterlooville: spot the differences

Created another panorama of Waterlooville town centre, then thought, why not compare it with the previous panorama!

So here are the two images next to each other. The top is 2013, the bottom is 2010. How many differences can you spot? Click on the image to view a larger scale version and expand your browser window to the full width of your screen.

Horsemeat and things

Cosham Iceland

'Food you can trust' says Iceland, who took a hit when Irish food inspectors found traces of horse DNA in their beefburgers. But at least it was only a tiny trace, Tescos were far more embarassed when it was announced that almost 30% of the DNA content of it's 'value' range of beefburgers consisted of horse meat.

Strangely in 'i' newspaper a Tesco spokesperson suggested it was illegal to have the meat in their products. I'm not sure that is true, what is illegal is to say a food product contains beef only, when in fact it contains other meats as well.

Cosham high street

Meanwhile the big corporates continue to fall on the high street. Following the news of HMV and Jessops in trouble, Blockbuster have joined the growing count of failing retailers.

I am just thankful that when I graduated as an engineer all those decades ago that I went more or less into a good engineering job and spent a year as a paid trainee. I designed things that were manufactured in this country, even often went on the 'shop floor' to see the products being assembled and chatting to production line colleagues.

Jessops, Portsmouth

Today young graduates often end up in service industries like supermarkets, despite having degrees in IT, mechanical engineering etc

Yet successive governments, including the Conservatives and Liberals just cut, poke, criticise, blame and find scape goats (such as jobseekers and others) for the situations they are responsible for creating. They kill the desire to make things and the desire to innovate. It is no wonder we are in a spiral and that many are disenfranchised.

Low carbon technology and engineering is a challenge and as such must be viewed as an OPPORTUNITY to exploit, hence fostering new industry and jobs. Wasting time and effort on old industries will result in other nations overtaking us, yet again. Commiting our graduates to stacking shelves whilst other nations take the prize projects and jobs.

Fire damaged Cooperative store - Milton Road

Fortunately no one was hurt when a fire gutted the Cooperative store at Milton Rd this weekend. Media reports say that it was caused by an electrical fault on a freezer.

More obesity and diabetes predicted for Havant Borough

As is obvious from my posts, I am interested in real evidence and science when it comes to policy and life in general. New research shows a direct correlation between the over provision of food shops and obesity and diabetes.

The research has been conducted by Professor Makse at City College, The City University of New York. His research shows that individual factors have less impact than collective behaviour. A major influence is the provision of food retailers, including supermarkets, restaurants, cafes and other facilities. The more food related economic activity, the greater the levels of obesity.

How does this translate to local activity in Waterlooville? Well it isn't exactly a secret that the Havant Borough Council have been actively trying to fill the town with cafes, food shops and supermarkets, largely because they approved other out of town retail developments that laid waste to the town centre. The biggest project is the Caetano manufacturing site, now handed over to Sainsburys supermarket. The obsession with the ideology of competition and market forces, will result in higher health bills.

Basically there is a conflict of interest. The flaws in todays unscientific economic theories, result in serious health and environmental problems. This is what happens:

1. You create plenty of opportunities to sell food.
2. Collectively and statistically people get fatter.
3. That results in higher health costs
4. But the current ideology is to limit or reduce state spending
5. The result is a big hole, caused mainly by flawed and unscientific economics that fails to include 'externals'.

Yet the 'right' would advocate personal responsibility, which would be fine if the science supported that idea. But as is often the case, people are social beings, like many species. Yes there is competition, but there is also peer pressure and that is often far more influential.
The science shows that individuals will not determine health, they are instead 'victims' of environmental factors, in this case created by flawed political theories and economics that over supply cheap food.

Will a small amount of spending by the council on health road shows and getting individuals to change do the job??
Again this is not supported by science or any fact. The national government sticking a few public information films on TV, or the council sticking a health caravan in Waterlooville town centre for a day, will do absolutely nothing. However refusing a supermarket planning permission will reduce obesity levels. Yet just about all councils think it is cheaper to allow planning applications for supermarkets. Is it really cheaper to get sued by a supermarket, or is it cheaper to spend millions on obesity and diabetes?? Which is the morally correct choice?

It is interesting that this research is published just as a new series 'The Men Who Made us Fat' starts on BBC2.

Here is the research:
Lazaros K. Gallos, Pablo Barttfeld, Shlomo Havlin, Mariano Sigman, Hernán A. Makse. Collective behavior in the spatial spreading of obesity. Scientific Reports, 2012; 2 DOI: 10.1038/srep00454

Or if you want it explained in plain'ish' english:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120614131207.htm

More local developments

It seems that Waterlooville and Havant Borough in general is now inundated with house, supermarket and hotel building. In some cases, the developments can probably be justified, in other cases the developments are IMO criminal acts. Lets list them:

Woodcraft Farm - criminal act of environmental damage

The site is probably as green a site that you could possibly get in Havant Borough, with many excellent trees. One questions why this site is even considered suitable for development, when brown field sites are available, such as the Caetano site.

How are we supposed to maintain the green spaces around us when council policies allow developments on these spaces? What is really sad is that the main objections locally is the increased traffic that might occur!

Old Purbrook School playing fields - probably justifiable

Of all the sites, this one can probably be justified given that it is in the middle of a suburban area. Although even this could be developed into a green space for community use, such as an urban community garden space. It is situated next to the roundabout at the top of Stakes Road and near Crookhorn school.

Sainsburys supermarket

I think locally many are dreading the disruption later this year when work will probably start on the Caetano site, firstly with demolition and then building work. It was a nightmare when the nearby retail park was built. The new Sainsburys will have a similar impact and as with all these retail units, will encourage car use and more CO2 emissions. Yet another nail in the coffin of Waterlooville town centre. More cafes, charity shops and fast food outlets to come I think.

New Hotel - Bosmere Field

Why do we need more hotels? The government talks about balancing the economy, yet this week Cameron welcomes 5000 new Asda jobs and 1000 jobs with McDonalds! What planet does Cameron live on? Was Britain great because it served the world and gave up bothering with science, design. invention etc??

The consequences of car dependency, supermarkets and online shopping...

The old Post Office building, briefly came back to life as a cafe, now
unoccupied.Email and other electronic communications have
reduced business for most Post Offices. 

A row of shops near Waterlooville library unoccupied, although one is
being taken up by the Naomi House charity

The Curzons and a small unit next door. The Curzons has been empty
for how many years?

Another empty shop unit not far up from the library

 

Sainburys withdraw planning application

Looking through the weekly planning applications for 11th to 17th March (link to PDF file), reveals that Sainsburys have currently withdrawn their application to build a supermarket at the Caetano site in Waterlooville.

However this is likely to be a short term easing of the situation. Sainsburys are unlikely to throw in the towel that easily and are probably revising their plans after a number of questions were raised about traffic and the location of the proposed petrol station on the old Sprint Print site.

Later this year they will probably be submitting new plans.

304-306 London Road update (Woolworths building)

Work at the old Woolworths premises continues. I recently found a planning application at Havant Borough Council to approve the two units to be separated and for the smaller unit to be extended at the rear.

But having had a peek into the two premises, one would think they are doing the opposite and combining the two into one!

I guess the owner of the property (Aaron Wright?) believes they will get more in rents for two properties rather than one big one. Or they might be considering selling up?