Hornchurch High Street: people friendly and car friendly
Hornchurch high street is a centre for retail, leisure and service industry outlets. It provides opportunities for people. For people to meet each other by accident, or by design. To have a chat, a coffee or just push on with their lives. To be human in other words, which is the antidote of the Amazon experience.
Hornchurch high street has chain stores complemented by a lovely mix of independent businesses. There’s a wide selection of restaurants, takeaways, pubs, coffee bars and betting shops. Service opportunities abound with hairdressers, insurance, banking, a post office, solicitors. The chemistry is incredible. Amazon can’t compete with human vitality. The high street is vibrant, welcoming and successful.
High street footfall is fuelled by being both a retail and leisure destination. Hornchurch has wonderful public transport access but car parking is essential. Havering’s population is one of Britain’s oldest. It also has an unusually high car ownership. The high street needs good, plentiful car parking to maintain its competitive edge.
A prosperous high street means fewer voids, fewer charity shops and momentum. Momentum in terms of competition for space, higher rents but also higher house prices as Hornchurch becomes yet more attractive.
The council car parking policy is short-sighted and destructive. Car parking isn’t a cash cow which can be endlessly milked without damage. Car parking enables Hornchurch high street to be competitive in its ferocious competition with the monster that is Amazon.
Amazon Warehouse: robot friendly
Chris
Politics in Havering 