Calls made to use Spalding empty shops for heritage displays

Calls have been made to tidy up the town centre by using empty shop fronts for historical displays.

Senior members of South Holland District Council have agreed to the preparation of a shop front guide in order to help improve the appearance of towns and villages across the area.

Members of the cabinet were presented with the conclusions of a business task group which is also recommending that the council liaises with the Business Improvement District (BID) manager to provide monthly updates on Spalding town centre. Spalding Business Board has not yet announced if a manager has been appointed.

Concerns have been raised for sometime that the council’s shop front guide is 20 years out of date along with calls for the council to take enforcement action to protect conservation areas from untidy shop fronts.

Council leader Coun Nick Worth told a recent meeting of the cabinet that a shop front guide is something that has been needed for years but also shared another idea which had been put before Spalding Town Board - which is responsible for distributing the £20 million ‘left behind towns’ money.

He told the cabinet meeting “Spalding Town Board did take a suggestion from Spalding Gentlemen’s Society about potentially using empty shops when they become available for displaying history of the area.

“But that is not as easy as it sounds as you have to contact the owner and get a deal.”

There are a number of large empty shops in Spalding town centre after Halifax and Barclay’s Bank have closed their branches along with the former Lloyds unit in Market Place.

A further empty shop could soon be in Market Place when clothing shop Robert Goddard closes its doors for the final time.

The task force was led by Coun Andrew Woolf, who said that the aim of the group was to look at improving the street scene across the district.

He said initially members thought that this would fall under planning department but licensing regulations also play a part.

Coun Woolf said: “The idea is to make the street scene look better. That’s not just an opinion within this chamber but something that is wider spread among the general public.”

“For this to work we need to look at creating a shop front guide for the district.”

He said that while Spalding town centre came up regularly during the meetings, the shop front guide would also need to include village shops.

The chairman said: “It’s not something we would want to go with a forcible hand to encourage shop owners that their window and display promoting the goods they are selling.

“If we could encourage more with that, that would make the street scene look a lot better.”

He also said that using the council’s communications team to highlight the good examples of shop fronts to encourage more traders.

Cabinet member Gary Taylor said that he supported the task force’s recommendations.

He said: “This is not about being against business. It is about being on their side and supporting them to attract more customers from the locality and further away.”

Coun Tracey Carter told the meeting that the report recommends that businesses apply for grants to improve their premises but these are not always available to firms.

Heritage champion Coun Liz Sneath said that she did not think that Spalding’s high street was worse than anywhere else.

She said: “I think empty shops are a real problem, we haven’t got many but what we have got as many.

“Empty shops attract graffiti and damage and that does pull the area down.”

Spalding and District Civic Society has been calling on the council to take another look at its shopfront guide - which is 20 years out of date - for some time as it feels footfall to the town centre could be increased if closer attention were paid to the appearance of the buildings.

Traders in Holbeach have also previously called on the council to enforce some sort of standards to help protect the town’s conservation area from vinyl coverings and ill-fitting signs.

Nearby Stamford has a shop front guide.