Celebrate Local Businesses

I posted a massive list of ideas in the comments section of the Wider footways, barriers and bridge closure post.

Copied below for easy reference – Web editor

Now that the bridge closure is in place, the Mill Road Traders’ Association needs to up its game and promote the street as a nice place to be. Currently the message they are unintentionally giving out is safety is not high on their radar, and in general giving off a lot of negativity.

With a nice summer ahead, they should be calling for imaginative ideas to give the clear message that Mill Road is open, safe, and welcoming.

Here are some starter ideas:

• Parking spaces and delivery spaces, along the street, as well as at each sideroad (1 short-stay plus one free disabled space). Traders always complain there is no parking – why aren’t they calling for this right now?
• Pushing to allow tables and chairs on the street for al-fresco use. The cafes and restaurants will surely need this given that capacity indoors will be reduced if they are COVID-safe compliant.
• Seating areas outside to rest and relax. People enjoying public space spend more money in the nearby shops.
• Tree planters along the street (would have been lovely to have had shade today!).
• Website promoting the street, with a shops directory, interviews with traders, etc.
• Instructing their van drivers never to park on pavements – no excuse now without the queueing traffic.
• Posters for house windows promoting Mill Road.
• Flyer to all houses.
• Booklet every 2-4 weeks featuring different shops.
• Publicise the safety changes made by shops. (But what actually has been done inside the shops? Some I’ve been in seem to have done nothing, despite claims of substantial efforts being made along the street. The likes of Al Amin have clearly made excellent efforts though.)
• Improving shop windows – some barely touched in years it seems, and it would be nice to feel that new customers are actually being enticed in rather than merely existing customers’ loyalty being assumed.
• Flag bunting along the street – giving a sense that this is a welcoming place to come to, not just a traffic conduit as it has been.
• What about something very eye-catching like this parasol art?

(More images on the BoredPanda website – Hundreds of Floating Umbrellas Above a Street in Agueda, Portugal)

• Public art by children currently stuck at home.
• Maybe… a Loyalty card (properly resourced though – Milly Card was a bit half-hearted); not sure as this would maybe just cut profits.
• Gateway arch feature from Parker’s Piece to draw in sunbathers to buy food.
• Open windows selling lunch for people walking by, with attractive displays. A stream of A-boards, some of which are not particularly enticing, isn’t really enough.
• Events at weekends. Maybe a bit difficult while there is social distancing. (Though traders’ don’t seem to think this is a problem judging by today’s protest of >50 people…)
• Twitter and Instagram accounts promoting Mill Road and what its shops have to offer. Imaginatively showing what is available. Separate to other accounts, i.e. not a vehicle for campaigning views which inevitably divide opinion, but simply to promote shops in a positive way.
• Apply to city council for promotion grant or Mill Road co-ordinator to organise a lot of this.
• Food selling outdoors on Saturdays, as on the day of the annual Mill Road Winter Fair
• Barbers seating outside for queuing customers now that 1-2m not easy inside. (No doubt those against the current changes are presumably not planning to have seating outside, and so limiting their numbers, as that could look hypocritical.)
• Rainbow pedestrian crossings – things like this that kids will want to visit, bringing families in.

• New delivery setups so that people shielding or wary of coming out can use the shops – provide an alternative to everyone else who now provides online ordering. (Al Amin are already doing this – Ed) That’s what traders have had to start competing against in the last 5-10 years, but especially right now. It’s not 1990 any longer; shops need to adapt. Many people are currently wary of coming out of their houses. Websites like http://www.clickitlocal.co.uk are already out there – how many traders have signed up or promoted this?
• Secret shopper tests – frankly, some of the shops seem to treat shoppers as a bit of an inconvenience rather than be really friendly and welcoming. A smile and a thank you aren’t universally present when a transaction is made. Many, thankfully, are lovely and welcoming, but improvements could be made along the street.
• Sorting out disabled access. Why is this still a problem in 2020? Some establishments have been threatened with court action, which frankly undermines complaints about disabled driver access over the bridge. Al Amin shows improvements can (and legally must) be made.
• Traders website not updated since 2017 (has there really been no time in the last 3 months to sort that out?). Presumably this wouldn’t break furloughing any more than activities like poster creation and so on would have broken it. https://millroadtraders.wordpress.com/

(Note:The site which to which Martin refers, is the top hit on Google. However, this later iteration of the Mill Road Traders’ Association website‘s most recent update is October 2019, which is not much better. In the body of the blogpost I note that we have asked Mill Road Traders’ Association for a statement, and offered to link to anything appropriate which they post on their website. – Ed)

• Reinvigorate the Mill Road Traders’ Association to cover more shops and a stronger democratic basis – seems to be the same people all the time, giving a single message of “Nothing must ever change on Mill Road”. Which traders do they actually represent, and to what extent? What work to set up street promotion has this body been doing for the last 3 months, for instance, knowing that even with the most perfect street arrangement, trading would always be very challenging?
• Crowdfund for improvements so that these changes don’t come out of profits. Plenty in the community would be happy to help traders out to do lots of things in this list, if there was a more positive attitude. Though the city council ought to be providing a big grant to improve the street and do lots of the work, rather than continue to put all their efforts into the city centre (where streets are already much wider and more pleasant).
• Ask the few larger chain stores like Co-op for assistance to fund soft street improvements.
• Painting shop fronts and generally brightening up the street.

(Good to see at least two of the hairdressers’ being refitted and redecorated, including Mill Road Traders’ Association spokesperson Piero d’Angelico, and two restaurants – Maurizio Dining and Al Casbah. – Ed)

I have seen not a single suggestion in any communication over the last few weeks suggesting any of the above, only protest, sadly. Where is the imagination and desire to improve the street, irrespective of traffic changes?

I know from personal experience that running a business is hard and exhausting work. None of the above would just happen by magic. But there needs to be a sense to work together that Mill Road can be better.

There is plenty of opportunity in coming months for businesses. People have been stuck indoors and want opportunities to go out and spend money in pleasant surroundings.

For instance, any barber or hair salon on Mill Road who doesn’t have a full order book from 4th July would surely be doing something wrong when there are 20,000 people within walking distance on their doorstep – “the nation needs a haircut” as Matt Hancock MP said. Those places should be designing and flyering these houses right now, generating bookings and creating new customers who will return afterwards.