Forum topic: New report on measures relevant to revitalizing Palmers Green

Attend almost any ‘Area Forum’ (meetings organised by the council where local ward councillors consult residents about local issues), and you are likely to hear complaints from high street businesses that lack of parking places and parking charges are bad for trade. It’s a proposition that has been hard to verify and even harder to quantify.

It was within that context that some years ago a local group: Improving Our Place, set out – amid other aims to improve the 'liveability' of Palmers Green – to find ways of supporting local businesses given that extra parking can’t be conjured out of thin air, and one of the functions of parking charges is to prevent long-stay parking being detrimental to businesses. The group decided that the best way forward was to improve the town environment and the walking/cycling access to town and park, all of which was incorporated into a manifesto with much else. Ultimately that led to new proposals for the Triangle, a consultant’s report for the council and a long-term plan for the town dependent on available funds.

But still complaints about parking charges continue.

Now though a new report by Living Streets – a national campaigning charity which “…stands up for pedestrians…..” - has commissioned and published a report: “The Pedestrian Pound”, which takes a long, hard look at the factors which could/would attract people to shop locally more often in the context of out-of-town shopping centres and the growth of online shopping. The full report and a summary can be accessed at www.livingstreets.org.uk/pedestrianpound.

The report finds that:
• shopkeepers are wrong to rate more, or more and cheaper parking, as an important contributor to increased sales (the evidence is strong);
• improving the ‘public realm’ (attractive streets, choice of retailers and other services like restaurants and cinemas, freedom from traffic) increases footfall;
• pedestrians buy more than motorists;
• business organisations and some businesses mistakenly value accessibility by car above the quality of the public realm.

With the exception of the fact that pedestrians buy more than motorists this is just what Improving Our Place thought when the current chapter in Palmers Green’s history began.

For those of us for whom Palmers Green is home, for the probable majority who would like to be rid of endless betting outlets and money shops, for the sheer pleasure of living here, this is an important report and well worth a read.

After the large supermarkets opened and decimated high street groceries, charity shops, financial services, estate agents and hairdressers seemed to dominate, perceptions at least. Then the internet took out clothing and other goods easily searchable and ordered on line. The same internet is clearly eating into betting and is going to take on estate agents in the immediate future. Banks are not going to grow further on high streets and as more banking moves on-line / app based more closures is the only realistic route to expect. Take away foods, and even restaurants, are vulnerable to home based ordering and delivery through intermediate providers (“Just Eat” and others now entering the market, apparently very successfully). Essentially pizza delivery becomes ubiquitous across all food and food outlet types. Last week it was said that as many as 1 in 10 households now receive their groceries via on line. This is immense penetration, doubtless to grow given the strength of trend and likely drives the small in-fill pick-ups from the new wave of small supermarket-lites

So what is left looks like it may be increasingly centred on what the internet can’t replace – such as haircuts and cafes, eateries where social rather than eating is the primary driver, and the reuse of our unwanted items plus the odd in –fill and specialist. Ring any bells?

If I’m right in suggesting the likely future what does it mean for our own high street? And if I’m wrong, what is the alternate future?

This concern is very much appreciated, most of us do not want a dreary vacant shopping High Road because of online shopping. There is pleasure in walking to one's local shops and shopping is part of life's social activity. (I have to say that there are still many shop owners that do not understand the significance of a clean and attractive front window display).

Personally, for certain selected items such as clothes and household furniture are commonly visually misleading online as in the flesh look very different.

However, having made my point of the relevance of having various local high road shops I am not against online shopping and being somebody who very much cares for our environment I had hoped that it would had decreased the volume of cars on our roads, meaning less car fuel pollution in the atmospher and less various traffic noise which is an aggression on the human spirit. Traffic oddly has only intensified, which is very worrying.

Therefore, maybe it is time for all shop owners (which includes Butchers, Grocery shops and even supermarkets etc ) to start adapting to the changers by making progress in their services for their in-shop customers in order to encourage people to walk, bus and cycle to the shops more frequently. This facility would be a Home Delivery Service on the day 'for a too heavy to carry home shopping'. Plus, all shops respectfully, should have a seating area for their customers as there are people with health issues.

I think this is so true. The time to really make the high streets really attractive destinations was perhaps a decade back – when some of us tried hard – to help versus the inevitable undermining trends. Now there will be a mix, to include online and local as well as large shopping centres meeting needs. Local areas such as our own will need to fight harder, including on look and service, to maintain business share. But much future will be (welcome) social areas such as cafes and restaurants rather than selling larger ticket items.


The view of planners and experts who have considered the position is that centres of the form of Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill all across London (District and local Town Centres) will generally see shrinkage rather than stability in future. Indeed, agreed London wide plans are currently struck in such a direction. Cars will be used less for local shopping is the belief with more daily needs clustered within walking / cycling distances. (One advantage of a city is the proximity of many things.)


There is something called Lifetime Neighbourhoods which acknowledges a UK move to an older society and requires Councils to look at aspects which will be useable by all ages when making change; from as small as a door handle in a handle rather than knob form, and so be easier for arthritis sufferers, to more fundamental street scape issue. Hopefully when / if there is ever investment money available we will see some of this coming through. Shopkeepers can of course do aspects themselves, ideally supported by landlords, as pointed out in the last post.


I would personally add much more green; its introduction on the high street would seem to make it much more attractive, and I’m not talking of a token Triangle tree.

With the last wave seeing Starfish, The Yard, and The Vaporium opening, the general belief seemed to be that in achieving the Gold Standard of never being more than 20m from a cafe, PG had finally reached Peak-Coffee. But no, and the Chancellor’s expectation of the March of the Coffee Makers was indeed prophetic with two more now about to be found on the high street. Can PG now reach the magical 10m figure we must wonder, essentially every other outlet being a cafe?


What does this mean for the high street as a town centre and what might we see next as intense café competition surely forces differentiation: a bookie / café combo, a cat-café, a café without coffee, or maybe another non-shop / non-café trend will come to PG - the upmarket barbers, the education outlet that’s not a shop at all, even closures, but who knows. Probably safe to assume it probably won’t be a “shop” in the traditional sense.


All eyes will now be on the recently closed Vodafone outlet to see what the near future may bring. It could even be time for a bike shop, at least one selling handlebar fixtures to carry away your latte and slice of cake.

The café gap between new-entrants MyTime and Le Grand Jour looks like it will be filled with shisha-caffeine following the demise of the Green Pounder after eight years or so of high street trading and its struggle to meet its £20k+ annual landlord rental. This sum is on top of other costs, suggesting an operating break-even probably in excess of £1500 per week, that before all staff costs, stock loss and necessary business retentions; certainly a tall order for a pound style shop.


The indications are that this is not the only local store likely to go under due to a landlord’s rental burden, with a major Triangle outlet rumoured to be unwilling to meet increased rental demands and deciding to close its doors in July. A “Triangle Coffee House” to come perhaps?


The previous Vodafone and Santander premises remain vacant.


The extraordinary retail renaissance of Myddleton Road in Bounds Green, driven by local residents, is moving to a new phase with a recent crowdfunding exercise proving successful. The funds raised will be used to carry out legal searches to identify the landlords of the various shopping-street properties. Some have been managed for possibly extreme personal financial gain rather in a community supporting manner.

Anyone worried that the post Brexit demise of Chancellor Osborne and the huge success of his “March of the Coffee Makers” in filling PG with café’s need worry no more. The Prime Ministers new replacement mantra, “Brexit means Barista’s” has seen early door moves with “greens caffe” swiftly filling a vacant ex-restaurant space close to Poundland. The run-rate of one new café opening every two months, seen for the best part of the last two years, therefore remains steady


Do people really drive to PG, necessarily parking up on the high street, for a coffee or is some other dynamic going on between the ever decreasing number of more traditional high street shops and local parking?

Residents of Palmers Green were shocked to hear that a new retail outlet is NOT to be a café. Close to the job centre, the previous pharmacy was thought of as a shoe-in to fill a 100m or so gap between existing cafes. The earlier understanding that “Brexit means Baristas” seems to be wrong and instead “Brexit means Barnets”, with the venue slated to be an upmarket hairdresser.

It is not clear whether it will be serving coffee to clients.