by : John Barber Hertford blog

Redevelopment proposals

I have commented elsewhere on this site the devastating effect the death of our grandson in October 2015 had on my family and myself. I stepped down from my last remaining position in town and took no more than a passing interest in events.

Family and friends said this was not good for me. To get back in the swing of things I have migrated my old web site to here. It still needs a bit of work and tinkering but one of the things I wanted to do was to bring these posts up to date on events in town, especially the future of the Bircherley Green Shopping Centre.

Elsewhere in town the change of use from prime A1 retail units to bars, hairdressers and coffee shops goes on. At a  recent public meeting a few people kept mentioning the fact that Hertford was the County town. It is but you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

The consultation regarding the rail link between Hertford North and Stevenage appears to be lurching to a situation after 2018 when even a replacement bus link may not be in place following the extra platform space at Stevenage being planned for the London/Cambridge link.

Hertfordshire County Council’s Transport Plan for 2025 sees no necessity to involve Hertford other than a possible by-pass either north or south of the town.

The main centres or hubs are the other major towns such as WGC, Hatfield, Watford and even Harlow gets a mention. The county town is just another spot on the map.

I have already commented on the loss of the Magistrates Court, the Police Station and Tax Office. House building continues apace but no schools, doctors, dentists, hospitals, nurseries but plenty of bars and gyms.

So, the proposed redevelopment of Bircherley Green is back on the agenda. It was originally called ‘Regeneration’ but this has been discarded in favour of the lesser option. Which is?

Plans for Shopping Centre
Plans for Shopping Centre

Wrenbridge have presented new drawings and proposals for the Shopping Centre which bear only slight resemblance to those exhibited to Hertford in 2014. The anchor tenant is to be Premier Inns (coloured orange above)  – as I have mentioned before this was not in the original plans but did surface in the Hertford Design and Vision Strategy as proposed by Tibbalds in February 2016.

Bircherley Green riverfront
Bircherley Green riverfront

Instead of 124 accommodation spaces there will now be only 70 but there is only likely to be no more that 8 prime retail units for the high end destination High Street names. There are of course more restaurants proposed (as well as one inside the hotel) to make the river front more attractive.

This is all fine and in line with the evolving District Plan. However no one seems to have mentioned or complained that Waitrose do not figure in these plans at all. In fact at two public meetings Wrenbridge referred to Waitrose in the past tense. Waitrose have maintained their stance that Bircherley Green is not for them. When their license (not extended lease) expires in December 2017 where will they go?

They were optimistic that Van Hages would be submitting a new application but this has not been forthcoming and after the fiasco of the precious applications it is unlikely that an attempt will be made unless the Government has made a drastic alteration to its policy on Green Belt being released for commercial development.

Those who have followed events in Bircherley Green will remember the shock and outrage expressed in the media and on the social networks when Serendipity was refused permission to move next door in to the premises vacated by Going Places (now absorbed into Starbucks).

Now there is not even a whimper that this too may disappear.

The strangest thing about this ‘redevelopment’ is that East Herts Council are hoping that a boutique cinema and NHS Walk-in centre can be incorporated into the plans.

The only thing that appears to be on most people’s minds judging by the amount of time they have taken up at meetings is where everyone living in the new flats, staying at the hotel, shopping in town and coming in for a drink and a meal are all going to park.

I have seen no sensible answer to any of these questions. I do know from experience that an application when it comes in will be backed by expert research into peak and off-peak parking needs and traffic flows. Not sure about the cinema and the drop-in centre as I wonder who could possibly imagine such things being squeezed into a very tight commercial development. But I stopped worrying about District Council a long time ago.

Today being 30 November was the last day Wrenbridge were accepting comments from the general public. Once they have been digested they hope to be able to submit a planning application in mid December at which time I too, will inwardly digest and report back on here.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

When one door closes …

This is an update on events in Hertford over the past four weeks or so, from a very personal point of view. So, take a deep breath and read on.

Two weeks ago I popped into Colin Sykes’ jewellers shop to thank him for his friendship over the years and to wish him well for the future now that he is retiring and the shop is closing. He told me that he would still be around for a few weeks to tidy up etc but that another jeweller will be opening in his place (still empty April 2016 but finally occupied October 2016).

He has been trading in Hertford since 1980 – I remember his shop being in Maidenhead Street which became Artico and is now a bar dispensing milk shakes. This is 35 years trading in the town. There are not many left who can boast of that longevity. I refer to the remaining traders as ‘Last Man Standing’ when I see one. Soon, one might well be.

Last week I bought a wedding present from Ashleys in Maidenhead Street. I always refer to the lady there as Mrs Ashley. She tells me she just works there but I often pop in for a chat. They have been trading there since 1992 – 23 years! I didn’t know that. It seems to be one one those shops that is always there. But not for much longer. The shop will close at the end of June 2015.

Quite a few years back they applied for permission to change the premises from retail to a coffee shop. The application was refused on the grounds that Maidenhead Street was coloured red in the 2007 and 2013 District Local Plan (starting at Mill Bridge and incorporating amongst others Salisbury Square and Railway Street and of course Bircherley Green) designating it as only for prime retail.

Fair enough but it did not stop Rose Opticians from becoming Cafe Nero just a few months previous. On the basis so I was told that they turned over more take away coffees than were drunk in the shop. Mind, it did take six months to work that one out by which time the enforcement notice was conveniently ignored as all such notices have been ignored by all the coffee shop chains the length and breadth of the British Isles. I looked it up at the time. Now we have Costa Coffee, a milk shake bar, a Turkish restaurant and a coffee bar.

I do not know what will happen to the shop once Ashleys leave (empty and boarded up April 2016). It may join the long list of empty premises such as MacDonalds, Bob Hill, Marquee Centre, Michaels Jewellery and so on. It may become a ‘drinking establishment’ going by the bright lemon yellow planning sticker on the window of the old picture framing shop in Fore Street next to Deja Vu. Boy, do we need another drinking establishment. Obviously.

I once attended an East Herts Council Community Matters session at which I asked one of the Officers that ‘all things being equal’ if I wanted to open another bar, pub or drinking establishment was there anything in the rules that said I couldn’t. His reply was a resolute ‘No’. I recall Councillor Russell Radford and myself being quoted in the Mercury calling for a Local Plan for Hertford where it might be possible to limit pubs or hairdressers or nail bars to a certain percentage. So many years on and a Local Plan is still not even a dot on the horizon.

Anyone who has read any of the previous pages on this thread will know that I have been going on about the decline in Hertford’s retail offer and as a County town for some time. I was hoping that one of the candidates in the May local elections would knock on my door so that I could ask what they intended to do about it. No one did. In fact we have lived here since 1996 and not one candidate has even knocked on my door looking for my vote. Perhaps there is a secret chalk mark warning them off.

And so as sure as night follows day we move on to Waitrose. I do not know what is happening here. I throw my hands up in the air. The application by Van Hages to build a superstore – believed to be Waitrose – was approved by the Management Development Committee as the last act of a Council at the end of its term. It was a bizarre sort of meeting. Why would a senior councillor propose quite strongly that the application be approved knowing it was counter to his own planning officer’s recommendation, national planning policy and by default would be called in at a mammoth cost to council. No question mark. I don’t know.

Even more bizarre was that on the day before the vote all Councillors received an email from Wrenbridge laying down the pros and cons of approving or not the application. It concluded by saying that if the application was approved Wrenbridge would walk away from any future investment in Hertford.

As you may recall Wrenbridge are the lead consultants in a plan to regenerate Hertford and Bircherley Green in particular. This involves bulldozing the whole of Bircherley Green Shopping Centre along with over two dozen shops, kiosks, offices and the bus station and replacing them with eight new retail units and 125 units of accommodation. And a restaurant; for which Hertford is gasping. I do not understand how this represents ‘regeneration’.

Since that night no more has been heard of Wrenbridge or their regeneration scheme so perhaps they meant what they said. I check Google every so often and at the time of writing the Secretary of State has still not called in this application.

Councillor Jane Sartin has started an on line petition requesting that The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government calls in this application. The petition is slowly creeping to her target of 500 signatures. However on reading the comments it appears that most of those who have signed this seem to think that by calling in this the planning approval will be overturned. This is not how it works. I also noticed that many of the signatories don’t even live here. A sample page throws up these geographical locations; Cranfield, Oxford, Northampton, Coventry, London, Weybridge, Silverstone and Ketsch in Germany. What do these people know about the local economy?

I know that on many message boards you can state your country of origin when you first join.

Some wags will confirm residency of the Shetland Islands or Upper Volta.

Are all these signatories people who have a bee in their bonnet about supermarkets and troll every petition in which the word appears?

It works like this. The Secretary of State decides if there are grounds to refuse the application and if so will refer the planning approval to the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol. They will appoint an Inspector and set a date and place at which the application will be discussed. Both sides employ the services of very expensive barristers and three months later the Inspector will announce his decision.

This is what happened with the Sainsburys application and after months of legal wranglings the approval was upheld. Calling in a planning decision guarantees nothing, for either side.

Whilst this process takes place we creep inexorably towards 2016 when it is believed that Waitrose lease in Bircherley Green will expire. I have heard from a very good source that the lease expires in 2017. But never mind. Waitrose have made it very clear that they do not view the proposals as set out by Wrenbridge as suited to their requirements and have no intention of staying. If you care to look at the recent expansion and building projects undertaken by Waitrose who are the only group actively developing you will see that they prefer to own their own land not rent, stores built to their own specifications and an abundance of parking on the flat. Bircherley Green does not fit this vision.

In the meantime the Council that approved the application has now changed personnel. A new executive, a new Committee and an absolute majority. There is no opposition; there are 50 seats and 50 Conservative members. What will the future hold? More of the same I guess.

As it happened when the application was due to be heard by the new Committee Asda in Ware objected on the grounds of incursion of the Green Belt and the application was withdrawn.

Footnote April 2016. Waitrose is still there but are still optimistic that Van Hages will apply and receive planning permission to relocate there. There has been no news from Wrenbridge. The highly expensive Hertford Vision and Design Strategy carried out by Tibblads on behalf of East Herts Council has been published but has not yet entered the public domain despite nearly everyone in Hertford presenting their views by visiting the exhibition or writing in.

I do have a copy but all it has done is revisit everything that has been discussed and argued over through very committee and strategy group that I know and have attended and come up with nothing new or workable.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Election fever in Hertford

April 16 2015

Election fever in Hertford is like a clammy hand snaking around your vital organs whilst you lay in bed on a winters night dreaming of a shimmering and sun-drenched Caribbean shoreline.

There are four political wards in Hertford which will be returning District and Town Councillors along with an MP on Election Day 2015 which is 7th May 2015.

These Wards are Bengeo, Castle, Kingsmead and Sele. Nominations for all Wards have now been published by East Herts Council and this is how the they reflect the parties interest.

The parties have submitted nominations for District Councillors as follows.
Bengeo Ward declares three (3) and the nominations are:
Conservative 3; Labour 3; Green 1, UKIP 1.

Castle Ward declares three (3) and the nominations are:
Conservative 3, Labour 3, Green 1, Independent 1.

Kingsmead Ward declares two (2) and the nominations are:
Conservative 2, Labour 2, Libdems 1, Green 1.

Sele Ward declares two (2) and the nominations are:
Conservative 2, Labour 2, Green 1.

Out of 50 seats at East Herts Council during the last administration 46 were Conservative councillors. There is likely to be little change in this make-up; or of voting in an effective opposition owing to the inability of the other parties (apart from the Labour group) to field the maximum number of candidates.

(All 50 seats returned Conservative members – one is now an Independent)

There are also the Town Council elections and nominations for Hertford Town Council are as follows.
Bengeo Ward declares four (4):
Conservative 4, Labour 4

Castle Ward declares four (4)
Conservatives 4, Labour 3

Kingsmead Ward declares four (4)
Conservative 4, Labour 3, Libdems 1, Green 2

Sele Ward declares four (4)
Conservative 3, Labour 4

Given that at the last election Hertford Town Council had 15 Conservative and 1 Labour Councillor this is not likely to change much either.

(It didn’t owing to Sele Ward having only 3 Conservative candidates.)

The truth of the matter is that this part of the world has been voting blue for the last three elections and with all parties finding it difficult to find candidates willing to stand we are unlikely to see any significant change at any Council level. Or for that matter Parliamentary Member – Hertford and Stortford Constituency (Mark Prisk MP) is one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Hertford retail – Part Two

Where in Hertford can you buy a pair of shoes, ladies underwear or a baby’s potty?

The answer is that you can’t; not if you like your foot to be measured, are a lady of a certain age or have searched all the obvious places like chemist shops. I found the latter item in Messages where you’d least expect to find a baby’s potty. There are no shoe shops left in town and unless you are a young lady with a svelte like figure places to find those essential pieces of clothing are far and few between.

I have just completed an up to date database of the town’s business premises. I last wrote a similar report in 2007 and the town centre profile has changed quite dramatically. There is now almost a total reliance on the service sector. People used to comment that all Hertford had to offer was estate agents, charity shops and hairdressers. In the past it was easy to refute these claims but now the facts are quite stark.

There are 269 retail outlets including Banks of which there are 8. Of those 159 retail premises offering services, 39 are in the health & beauty sector (hairdressers, nail bars, salons etc) and 65 are in the food and drink sector (Bars, coffee shops, takeaways etc). These two sectors alone account for 66% of all service sector businesses. In 2007 this was 55%.

Since I wrote the report the premises once occupied by Clintons Cards is now being rebuilt as a Turkish restaurant, Slades is a restaurant/cafe, East Herts Electrical is a Mens hairdressers, Artico is a smoothie bar and The Decorated Room is to be another smoothie bar (now an Italian restaurant).

There are long standing traders who are about to close. Colin Sykes will retire in May, Michaels Jewellery is to close at the end of February and I know of at least another two long standing traders who are on the point of closing or moving.

What will come in their place? Answers on a postcard.

The revised application by Van Hages for a food store presumed to be Waitrose is due to be considered by Planning Department shortly and we await with breath bated the application from Wrenbridge for the regeneration plans for Bircherley Green. As I have said before either Waitrose will leave for Ware or close its doors for good in 2016; and if Wrenbridge succeed there will be a big hole in Hertford for at least eighteen months – probably more.

In the meantime where is everybody going to go for essential everyday items? Not Hertford. Possibly Harlow, Stevenage or Welwyn Garden City. No one wants to shop out of town but given the lack of depth in Hertford’s shopping offer does anyone have a choice any more?

There is a need for a Local Plan but where is that going to come from? There is an election in May but I doubt if any of the local issues found in this blog will be addressed. At the heart of the matter everyone seems quite happy living here – and that is the real problem. Good schools, good transport links, low crime rates etc etc. At night there are plenty of bars and eateries to suit all tastes but no one is here during the day and no one seems bothered about how the town will look in another 8 years.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

The leaving of Hertford

There is very little talk in Hertford at the moment other than when will Waitrose be leaving. This is no doubt in response to the Hertfordshire Mercury edition of 6 November in which they used the headline and caption – Waitrose confirms it will be moving out of Bircherley Green, Hertford – Waitrose will pack its bags and move out of Hertford town centre.

This is of course slightly misleading. It is true that Waitrose have indicated their intention to relocate from Hertford. Previous applications are referenced in my blog of 20 October 2014. They have also stated that the Bircherley Green Regeneration Plan is not viable for their purposes within correspondence attached to the application as below – Ref: 3/14/1708/FP (since refused).

A planning application has been made my CPRE on behalf of Van Hages Garden centre for the demolition of some buildings and provision for a food store. There is no mention of Waitrose in the application but the wealth of supporting documentation has been prepared by Waitrose so it can be extrapolated from this that it is their intention to move to Van Hages. All things being equal.

However as the poet said: ‘there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip’.

Further comments on this application be it in favour or against were closed on Thursday November 13. The application will now go to East Herts Council Planning Department who will determine this application based on current planning regulations and not because some vocal people in Hertford do not like the idea of losing a store in a shopping centre in a heightened state of disrepair and unable to carry the full range of products required of a modern supermarket.

Planning Department may recommend that the application is refused. Even so when the case is heard by the Development Management Committee they can accept this advice or overturn it. If refused Van Hages and Waitrose can resubmit their proposals or appeal up to the Office of the Home Secretary. It is a long journey.

In a statement to the Sunday Telegraph Managing director of Waitrose Mark Price said out-of-town supermarkets in Britain will have to reinvent themselves to survive a surge in popularity in convenience stores, online and discount retailers.

If we count the Van Hages site as being ‘out of town’ then what are we to make of Waitrose’s intentions? Mark Price added: “The more space that is put down from this point on, the more you have to worry about the economics of the industry. So, I think it is no surprise that a number of players are saying they are not opening any more space or they are opening only limited space, because every new bit that opens makes the economics harder and harder.”

The future is by no means certain. It appears that they might be leaving Hertford some time in the future but not yet; or perhaps not until their lease expires in 2016. It is not even certain that they could see out this lease for as Mr Price told The Sunday Telegraph it is “incredibly hard to call” whether all of Waitrose’s will survive.

Who knows what is going through the corporate mind at present. One thing is sure, no one in Hertford has a clue.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Does the 724 run on time

Why does the Arriva 724 bus service between Harlow and Heathrow never run on time?

Why doesn’t the 724 run to the timetable?

Why is the Arriva Harlow to Heathrow bus service invariably late more times than it is on time?

Why is one or more runs cancelled at short notice without any warning?

Why do Arriva not publish punctuality and performance figures for the 724 bus service?

These questions came back to me yesterday whilst waiting with my daughter and two grandchildren at Hertford Bus Station. They were hoping to catch the 10.20am bus to St Albans. It was an unusually chilly morning and the bus did not arrive until 10.50am. Considering that Hertford is near the beginning of what is admittedly a long route and the bus is scheduled to leave Harlow at 9.50am this is a very lengthy delay. Naturally there was no word of apology or explanation from the driver.

This bus in particular is often late as is the 10.07am from St Albans to Hertford. Sometimes neither of these services run at all. It is not just these particular timings but across the whole timetable.

Whilst biding our time counting buses we noticed that the 724 to Harlow service came in at 10.25am about the time that one might expect the 724 to Heathrow service. This was not an optical illusion. Various passengers did ask the driver if he could be the late running 10.20 724 to Heathrow and even offered him a small gratuity to do so. But no, he was on the way to Harlow.

This is also quite odd as either he was the late running 9.56 am service or the extremely early running 11.01am service. Having some experience of waiting for the 724 at Welwyn Garden City bus station and/or QEII hospital I was at best confused.

]I know that this is a long route covering Hertford, Welwyn Garden City, St Albans, Watford and on to Heathrow but it is of not help to anyone waiting along the route.

There are few east/west services anyway and the only alternative my daughter has is to take a University bus to Welwyn and then a 300 to St Albans.

Fine you may say, but not so easy with two boys of two and half years old and one year old in a pushchair with bits of shopping and changing bags etc etc.

It might make things a bit easier to bear if there was up to date information. The information board at Hertford is placed on the service yard wall and not actually under the covered area of the bus station. It is no more than an electronic version of the paper timetable displayed behind the glass cabinets attached to the brickwork. The board does not display delays and once the appointed time for a bus arrival or departure has passed the number is wiped away completely

Why can’t the bus operators or the bus authority which is I suppose Hertfordshire County Council invest in a system which works very well in London whereby the running times of all routes is displayed with any delays or cancellations on a screen built into the bus stop itself?

I don’t know the answer although I suppose it has its roots (sorry for the pun) in finance or lack of; or a total inability to run a modern service. They can’t even make up their minds what to do about subsidies towards loss making bus routes which provide a vital service for the old, infirm and disadvantaged groups. This decision has been deferred until 2015 so we can still get on a bus after 6.30pm. Yippee!!

Whilst sheltering from the sprightly November wind my daughter said that there as no other real option but to learn to drive. I support her in this. But you can see where this is going. One less passenger, one more car, less bus services owing to lack of passengers, fares rise, more car owners and so on ad infinitum until the powers that be have it all their own way and no more have to pay for a public service such as buses. One more headache solved. But not for my daughter with two tired children and a rather exasperated father and grandfather.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Waitrose to Amwell End

I see that an application has been made by CBRE on behalf of Van Hages Garden Centre for part demolition and extension of their existing store and provision for a food store. The Hertford Waitrose store is not mentioned by name in the application but are partners to the accompanying documentation.

You can view the application by clicking on the East Herts Council Planning page and using the reference: 3/14/1708/FP (application since refused).

From my knowledge of the negotiations this always appeared to be the preferred option for Waitrose. They were unsuccessful in their bid to build a store on McMullens land having been outbid by Sainsburys. Their application to build a store in Ware was approved by the East Herts Council planners but overruled by the Executive in favour it would appear with hindsight Asda, who have now begun building work.

Where does this leave the Hertford store?

Waitrose is central to a proposed application by Wrenbridge for the Bircherley Green Regeneration Plan which involves a new anchor food store and 124 new homes – see my earlier post on the impact this will have on the bus station and other access routes.

There are various scenarios for Bircherley Green and Hertford in general – none of which are particularly positive.

If the Van Hages application is successful and Waitrose leave Hertford in mid-2016 when their lease expires what will happen to the empty space? There is no obvious tenant to fill this as no other major supermarket chain has expressed an interest although no doubt urgent enquiries are being conducted by the management team at Savills.

If the Van Hages planning application fails and Waitrose decide to stay will the regeneration application by Wrenbridge be approved considering there are already grave concerns over transport and housing issues?

In the event that this is successful where will Waitrose go for at least eighteen months whilst the new shopping centre is being built, including customers and staff?

Finally if Waitrose do leave for Amwell End in 2016 and there is no incoming tenant what will happen to Bircherley Green in particular and Hertford in general. Wrenbridge have already intimated that in the last analysis if no anchor store can be found Bircherley Green may just rot away.

This is in no-ones best interests but until one or more planing application is approved then speculation will continue to haunt the town.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Regeneration

I went out today at about 3.00pm to visit the Post Office. Fortunately I was walking. A Boots delivery van was badly parked on the corner of Railway Street behind the delivery bay. A 310 double decker bus was unable to complete a turn from Market Street resulting in a queue of traffic down Market Street, along both sides of Fore Street and into Parliament Square. There was nowhere for any vehicle to go apart from waiting for the obstruction to clear. In that congestion was a fire appliance fortunately I hope, not on a call.

What has this to do with the Bircherley Green Regeneration plans you ask?

Wrenbridge, working on behalf of Cordeo-Savills have had some preliminary consultation meetings with Councils, residents and also set up a stand in Bircherley Green on 30/31 August 2014. The plans which at this stage are no more than artists impressions lack any real detail as to measurements, materials or size. There have been comments both positive and negative on the proposed siting of a new anchor food store and the provision of 124 town centre apartments.

The main area of concern for those who attended the consultations was the removal of the bus station from Bircherley Green and the provision of a number of enhanced bus stops along Fore Street. .

Under the new proposals all buses would have to enter the town along Fore Street from the roundabout; and exit through South Street, turning either right or left. There are no lights at the South Street exit where it joins the main roundabout.

Fore Street is one way and at best restricts traffic to one lane only as on the north side there are already marked out bus stops and the the south side has allocated parking spaces and delivery bays for traders. Even so, there is not a lot of room for two large vehicles to pass.

In effect all buses will be circling the town along Fore Street, through Market Street and out again through Railway Street; along with all other traffic. At present when buses are early or catching up with the timetable they wait at the bus station. Sometimes there can be up to six or seven buses standing there idle, as well as patient passengers. There will be no room for any of this if the move to Fore Street goes ahead.

It is worth mentioning here that Hertford is an ancient market town full of buildings of historical or architectural interest; the roads were not built for, nor intended for heavy modern traffic. The impact of so many extra buses along roads not constructed for their use may well break up the surface and cause uncertain damage to the historic structures all around.

The pavements at Fore Street are quite narrow and there is not much space for all the schoolchildren waiting for a bus at 3.30pm. In addition this is the site for the Taxi Marshalling Scheme on weekends and the present taxi rank is located on the north side of Railway Street.

Most people to whom I have spoken cannot see how this can work. There are a lot of bus routes which use the current bus station and they all have to be accommodated. For many people in Hertford the bus is the only means of travel. It is a worrying state of affairs at best.

You may now understand why I began this post with the traffic problems this afternoon. The driver returned to his van and the traffic moved again. It was not a long hold-up. However it only needs one broken bus, minor traffic incident or a badly parked car to gridlock the whole town in a matter of minutes and remain so for hours.

I think Wrenbridge and their fellow consultants may have to dramatically re-think their strategy.

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Death by a thousand cuts

Hertford has reasonably good transport links owing to its two train stations and bus station. Buses run almost to timetable except the Arriva 724 Harlow to Heathrow route which travels along a parallel universe where there are no hands on the clocks and it is never late until twenty minutes past the time indicated on the timetables. Like most areas north-south links are fine but the east-west routes are not so frequent.

There are evening and Sunday buses as well but if the intended cuts to bus company subsidies to be made by Hertfordshire County Council go ahead then there will be fewer if any buses at all running after 6.30pm or on Sundays to the furthest parts of the town, the villages or as they are sometimes called ‘the hinterland’.

This is not so good if you need to get home after a days work and have no other means of transport. It makes a mockery of the term ‘public service’. HCC’s own research indicates that there will continue to be a fall in the availability of public transport as commuters fed up with declining services and rising fares will turn to car ownership, thus creating a vicious circle. The car will be the dominant form of transport and buses will be a less than reliable service for the infirm, elderly and those who are unable to afford alternative transport.

There is still time to comment on the proposals which go under the familiar umbrella of ‘public consultation’ although there is no doubt that expenditure has to be saved and cuts will have to be made to met that shortfall. The Hertfordshire Libdems have begun an on-line petition.

Hertford is the county town. Fact. When I moved to Hertford in 1980 it was a thriving, bustling market town. During my years as Town Centre Manager since 2000 I have watched the steady decline of the retail offer and the equal dominance of the evening economy along with the change to a coffee shop culture, an urban feel for bars and gastro-pubs and a glut of premises in the hair and beauty sector.

Since my first post on Hertford’s retail offer two more shops are closing – Cactus in Railway Street and Loulebelle in Old Cross.

This has not happened overnight. Perhaps only people like me who are able to sit around and watch the world go by can appreciate the slow movement that has taken place. When traders some of whom have been here for over thirty years start to tell me that ‘there is nothing in Hertford to come here for’ then you know you have problems. The evenings are fine but in the day time then it is the elderly, mums with pushchairs and the unemployed and unemployable who fill the town.

Offices are being converted to residential units. This is in line with Government guidelines in wishing to bring people back to the town centres. But you need to work in London to be able to afford the cost of buying in the town centre. People stay in London for entertainment and shopping and the money stays in London.

Therefore the numbers of office staff are also declining; they used to browse the book shops, Woolworths. W H Smiths, keep the sandwich bars in business and all the other independent shops we were proud of. There are not so many of these any more either and this is helping to accelerate the rapid fall in footfall during the day time, the lifeblood of the traditional traders.

It is fine coming to town for a cup of coffee but you used to shop first and then drink, now you just drink because the shops are closing.

Not just the shops. Sovereign House as well. Admittedly this has been a blot on the Hertford landscape for some time but it also housed the Inland Revenue Services and Social Security office. Both of these are now boarded up. I presume the latter has been moved to the Jobcentre Plus building in Parliament Square but as for the tax man – perhaps Stevenage?! And the drop-in arrangement at Wallfields has also been cancelled.

There was a County Court here as well which used to hear family disputes but this was moved to Shire Hall some years ago. In 1971 a Crown Court was established in St Albans but criminal cases and the juvenile court presided over by magistrates were still held at Shire Hall but have now been transferred to either Stevenage or St Albans and only the family court remains here. This could also lead to some of Hertford’s solicitors moving as well to be close to where cases are heard adding to the exodus of office workers mentioned above.

Just around the corner from Sovereign House is the local Police Station. It is closed to the public. You cannot just turn up and speak to someone at the front desk. You have to make an appointment. The Probation Office remains in Ware Road but Hertfordshire Highways has moved out from its Hertford base also in Ware Road to St Albans, Stevenage and other centres. County Hall sits on top of the hill but many of its functions have also been transferred around the county. East Herts Council at Wallfields encourages more staff to work from home and utilise hotdesking when in town.

You may be spotting a trend here. I have mourned the loss of the round town cycle race and Fun Day is no more. This years Hertford Carnival had to be cancelled for lack of interest amongst the town’s clubs, societies and other organisations – not I might add the organisers. In the early part of this decade the Vintage Bus Rally from Hertford Bus Station was a highlight of Fun Day but this year was so poorly attended by enthusiasts and public that I fear this may also be lost.

I repeat: Hertford is the County town. But slowly and almost imperceptibly its pre-eminence as an administrative centre has diminished to the point where it is hard to see it continuing to function as such. It is still a pleasant town to visit with its strong architectural and historical heritage but even tourists are slowly waning.

I headed this piece ‘Death by a thousand cuts’. On the surface nothing has changed but underneath Hertford is bleeding, possibly mortally from a succession of decisions taken by various groups who see no future for the town which has been stripped of all those things that make its residents happy to live here.

The town’s motto is ‘Pride in our Past, Faith in our Future’. What future now?

by : John Barber Hertford blog

Hertford’s Retail Offer

Yesterday I walked though Hertford town centre and noticed that the shop in Railway Street once occupied by Thomas Cook was now empty and available for rent. The staff have apparently been relocated to Welwyn Garden City. This is another loss to the retail offer in town.

Amidst the continuing uncertainty over the future of Waitrose in Bircherley Green I believe that a more worrying trend is being overlooked. In the last month or so Hertford has lost a number of retail outlets that were essential to providing independent outlets in the face of the growth of clone towns everywhere else.

Hertford Cameras closed its doors after many years trading. I see that this is now occupied by a wedding outfitter and this is an encouraging development. However Artico in Maidenhead Street is due to close in June, East Herts Electrical in Market Place is empty, The Decorated Room is shortly to close and Hertford Pet Supplies closed its doors for the last time on Saturday just past.

Each one had their own personal reasons for closure. I count myself quite fortunate to have known many of those traders over a long period of years. As Town Centre Manager I would pop in for a chat and became friends as the years passed. I miss people like Roy Roberts at Wiggingtons. The world was always a better place after a few hours in his company whilst he railed against the problems faced by retailers in the face of local and national government interference.

This recent crop of closures is just a continuation of a pattern that I have noticed since around 2005/06. Hertford has a very low percentage of empty premises which is very much against the national trend; vacancies are filled quite quickly which is a excellent reflection on the faith people have in the town. Although one shining exception might be the old MacDonalds in Maidenhead Street

However many of the new businesses fall into the categories of coffee shops, bars, delicatessens and the hair and beauty sectors.

We have lost many ladies fashion outlets, home accessories and antiques such as Wiggintons and specialist independents such as Margaret Hart’s haberdashery and Marshalls Bike Shop.

I moved to Hertford in the early 1980’s and it was known as a centre for the antique trade. All of the antique shops have gone with the exception of Beckwiths. In 2007 when I came to amend my original town centre database of 2005 I used it to show the make up of each street by trade and shop/office/residential use.

At this time both Tesco and Sainsburys had applications before the Planning Committee and I commented as to what effect this would have on the town if one or both were approved and what its USP might be.

My question has been partially answered by the growth in the leisure sector such as bars, coffee shops and other forms of eateries. There is nothing intrinsically wrong in this. The general opinion in town is that people would rather a shop be taken and trading than be left empty. I used to sit outside Serendipity in Bircherley Green and watch customers walk into the travel agent on one side or into the bookshop on the other whilst they or their partner waited to be served. There is a welcome symbiosis between the two different sectors.

However of late the balance seems to be towards more coffee shops, drinking establishments and hair and beauty bars than the traditional retail offer such as we used to know as ‘butcher, baker and candlestick maker’.

It is fine to come to Hertford for a coffee but when traders, residents and long time associates in town start to question what there is in Hertford to make anyone want to visit, it is time to question where this lack of a retail offer is leading.