Whittlesey Business Forum

My thanks to the Whittlesey Business Forum, for inviting me to their meeting on Wednesday evening. On this occasion some 13 attendees, (Not all Businesses), including some councillors. A very interesting meeting – with ‘some’ ideas’ on how best to promote our Town. Retail has and is changing at a very rapid rate, our proximity to Peterborough as the major shopping hub and of course The Internet…Some at the ‘Forum’ think the clock can be turned back to ‘Old fashioned shops’ – sorry, selling a couple of specialist items a day is not going to sustain a business.
We have a ‘fair’ variety of shops and ‘plenty’ of take-aways, there is of course a ‘need’ for specialist shops, but some have tried and many have failed.
Most people including myself (Guilty) do a great deal of shopping/travel on the Internet because it is convenient, not always the cheapest and many become just lazy.
A couple of months ago, there was 13 vacant units in our town centre, many have been re-occupied, but it is the same story….use it or loose it, I for one am now making a conscious effort to shop more locally, as I did on Thursday when I used our Garden Centre on Station Road, instead of driving to Peterborough for the couple of items I needed.