Business

SHOP MANIFESTO

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21 April 2010

Kevin Quinn
kevin@southwarknews.org

As the election hots up a campaign has been launched to ensure that the issues surrounding struggling local shops are at the top of the agenda when politicians come knocking.

The SE5 Forum has been busy producing their own 'Business Manifesto' and placing it up on the windows of local shops in Camberwell.

The posters set out seven basic demands and it is hoped that as well as the traders signing up to the manifesto, customers will make it a talking point to be put to local candidates as they starting doorstepping the electorate.









Mark Mihajlovic, from the forum, who has been working on Camberwell New Road regeneration, told the 'News': “In Camberwell, small business has deteriorated continuously. There is less variety and quality of businesses. Offshore business owners and absent landlords have displaced owner occupancy.

The last ten years have witnessed the loss of Camberwell's sub-post offices and the disappearance of independents such as Duraty and the three bookshops. As part of this modal shift, more car journeys and van deliveries have created more noise, congestion and pollution, while locals make fewer walking journeys.

At the same time, warehouse drive-in supermarkets on the Old Kent Road and Dog Kennel Hill have flourished.  Shops on Camberwell Road such as Carnell Motorbikes and part of Butterfly Walk remain empty for as much as eight years. Vestry Road and Denmark Road have almost disappeared as local shopping communities.

Most worryingly, almost all new retail ground floor developments such as Gwen Morris House on Wyndham Road still remain empty three years after the flats above were tenanted.”   And he added: “Ethnic minority communities are probably affected most of all. African tailors and clothing are quoted by politicians as a symbol of the diversity of Camberwell, but those with former shop fronts such as Salam Ventures,









African Prices & Ugochi, no longer have representation within Camberwell.” The SE5 Forum, founded four years ago, has over 1,000 members and is popular with residents and businesses as a source of information at a very micro-local level. With fourteen board members, from local business owners, to publicans, representative from King’s College Hospital and Camberwell College of Arts, it has become strong voice within the community.

Their manifesto definitely appears to be hitting a nerve, as more and more businesses have signed up to display the manifesto, which includes calls for better parking, compulsory purchase of empty shops and discouraging street furniture installations.

The manifesto was given to the current MP for the area, Harriet Harman, and her fellow Labour candidates standing for election at the Town Hall three weeks ago. Other candidates from all parties are appearing for a hustings at the Wyndham & Comber Grove Estate next Thursday, April 29, where the SE5 Forum plan to hand them all a copy.

Currently only a new independent party standing in Camberwell Green ward has signed up to the manifesto.
This party, with three candidates, includes Tom Leighton. Leighton is also campaigning for community use of the old Bingo Hall, which shut down recently because of reduced customer numbers.

It saw 27 jobs go from the area on top of the loss of council workers, as it centralised its offices to Tooley Street at London Bridge last year to reduce their costs of managing an array of offices across the borough.

Banding together under The Camberwell Party, these independents also want to see the arts community utilised more in the area.    

The Lib Dem’s current member for Resources at Town Hall, Cllr Tim McNally, told the ‘News’: "This is a positive development from the Camberwell business community and I welcome the manifesto.

Although some of the proposals are out of the power of the council, I am happy to discuss with them how we can help local small businesses trade successfully through these difficult times."









Conservative Leader Lewis Robinson said that his party was considering the details of all the points raised in the manifesto and added: “I have sympathy with the issues raised in Camberwell. It is an area of Southwark where the people feel they are at the bottom of the priority list.”  And Labour leader Peter John said that he was also considering all the proposals in the manifesto, but added that their line on regeneration was clearly set out in their Vison for Camberwell, which they recently delivered to a Camberwell Community Council.           

Mark Mihajlovic said: "SE5 Forum have developed a business manifesto and invited local candidates for 2010 to commit to it. The idea behind it is to regenerate Camberwell through policy, rather than just grant spending on a few selected areas, given forthcoming public sector cuts. The eight empty shops at Bellenden Road, Peckham, which saw a whole regeneration programme a few years ago, show that grant spending does not guarantee success.

"Local shops, he added, "contribute to the liveliness and well-being of a community, but throughout Camberwell many small businesses have been forced to close. To protect them, local government needs to ensure outer-lying shopping areas are safe, attractive and accessible by foot and by car."

Certain demands in the SE5 Forum Business Manifesto would see a change that could lose the council money from their coffers, including bringing the annual parking permit rate for businesses at £334.40 to that of residents at £99.30.

More information is available at www.seforum.org/business where you can download your own Manifesto Poster for your favourite local business to display.


PARKING

Principle
Insufficient parking for businesses has contributed to the closure of many Camberwell businesses.

Proposals
1. Dedicated visitor parking for all businesses, equating to at least
one visitor space per shop within a 1 minute walk (such spaces to
be nearer than the nearest residents' spaces)
2. Protection for businesses from parking on pavements outside or near shop fronts.
3. Protection for businesses from residents’ and goods vehicles’ parking long-term on-street outside shop fronts.
4. One business vehicle permit per independent business to be issued to the owner at residential rates (excluding cab firms), and dedicated business permit spaces to be
introduced within a five minute walk of businesses. (Current rates are £334.40 for business permits, and £99.30 for residents' permits)


RENTAL

Principle
Property developers have purchased retail properties with a view to conversion to residential use, having previously demanded unrealistic rents.

Proposals
1. A moratorium on all conversions from shop retail to residential,
pending a full review by the council of trading conditions (thus
keeping rents lower).
2. Compulsory purchase of empty shops, reducing average rents for business
3. Forced advertising of all shops for which landlords seek conversion to residential on the Southwark Council website for six months minimum, with all rent and purchase offers coming
through Southwark Council's rates team, in order to establish true market demand at that location.
4. Identification of specific areas for which the "market rate" of rent could be challenged direct to the Valuations Office, based on poor
infrastructure, high crime and empty shops locally.
5. A commitment to highlight the injustice of "upwards-only" rent clauses in leases


INFLUENCE

Principle
Small traders need to be able to contribute to decisions about their locality.

Proposals
1. Sole traders and businesses to be consulted prior to the installation
of street furniture within a radius of 20 metres of their frontage.
2. Sole traders and business owners to have the right to transfer their vote to their
ward of trading.


SHOP FRONT GRANTS
Grants should not be released until full compliance with planning rules, including conservation by all parts of the building, has been achieved.


SECURITY
Well-functioning shops contribute to the security of a neighbourhood, and their own security needs should be better recognised and helped by the council.


PUBLIC REALM

Principle
The commercial impact on local businesses of pedestrian areas and the streetscape is not recognised.
Proposals
Continuing focus from councillors and planning and highways
managers on:
1. Maximising pavement space
2. Decluttering
3. Discouraging street furniture installations other than cycle racks and essential lighting,
4. Ensuring existing street furniture installations comply fully with local planning and conservation
area guidelines, near local businesses.

Watch out for next week’s paper
The ‘News’ will be printing a pullout on the election with all the candidates. To coincide with this, the Business Section will be asking the key runners where they stand on a manifesto produced on Southwark by the Federation of Small Businesses. 

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