While the current main street and Covid crises are impacting city centers across the country, community leaders in a market town in the Yorkshire Dales say it is not only bucking the trend, but its retail offering is growing. .
Just weeks after the owners asked Chancellor Rishi Sunak to end commercial fees at vacant retail sites, it emerged that all of the vacant stores in Hawes in the western area of their constituency were occupied by people desperate to remain living nearby. of their families. .
Hawes and High Abbotside Councilor Jill McMullon said the Covid-19 pandemic had had positive effects on the Upper Dales community.
She said: “The community has come together stronger than ever before and from that has come the optimism for a new tourist season. People have taken over the shops knowing that this is going to happen. It is going to be a boom time, I am sure. of it.
“There is not a single store that has not been invaded. Even during a Covid crisis we have not died. We have grown because we are all independent and everything is run by local people who want to stay here and are determined to make things work and that the area prosper. “
Hairstylist Edie Peacock and esthetician Laura Fawcett opened The Salon this week and took over a store that was previously run by the late Councilman John Blackie. : “It’s wonderful for the city to keep stores open.
“It’s a really lovely circle that we have taken on at John’s shop as he helped both Edie and me when we got back to work to get a grant to buy equipment and for the courses we had to take. It’s a beautiful legacy for him.”
Further down the High Street, 20-year-old Hawes lifelong resident Shannon McIntyre launched Feather and Fern on Monday, and like The Salon, business has been swift.
As councils continue to grapple with halting the exodus of youth from the national park, Ms McIntyre said she would encourage other youth to start businesses, even during the current economic uncertainty.
She said: “I settled in a confinement, so I don’t know what it’s like not to be insecure. People have taken it very well. I think we all assume that it is not possible to have a business, but you just have to do it.” Put the work in and make it work. Right now it’s working and I feel like it can only get better seeing that we’re in such a horrible time right now. “
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-04-16 05:20:11
