Shop owners in the Chilterns Shopping Centre have urged customers to keep on supporting them amid long talked about plans to turn it into housing, saying: “We could be here for years yet.”
Dandara Homes bought the neglected shopping centre back in 2018, with ambitions to turn some of it into flats, but keeping some retail aspect.
But there has not been a lot of progress with the development since then - and there might not be for years yet. Despite this, some shoppers have reportedly stopped visiting the businesses in the centre because they think it will be closing down imminently.
Chris Miller, who runs the normally very popular Air Raid Shelter Café, says trade has dropped right off recently and blames it partially on news articles that make it sound like the shopping centre is closing down soon.
Just hours ago, the Daily Mirror reported that six shopping centres – including the Chilterns – will be shutting for good “this year”.
That claim is seemingly based off of council documents that the Bucks Free Press wrote about back in March, in which Buckinghamshire Council reveals aims to “wipe away the blight of the redundant Chilterns Shopping Centre” within 18 to 24 months.
But the plans for the centre are still at a very early stage, and possibly relocating all the businesses in the centre, plus putting in a planning application and going through the process before any building work could even start, means that it likely won’t happen for many years.
“It is going to be knocked down, but not for a long time,” Chris told the Bucks Free Press on Friday afternoon.
“We accept it has got to go eventually, but we all have leases here. These things can take years and a planning application hasn’t even been submitted yet. People think we’re closing, but we’re not going anywhere for years.”
Darryl Earle, who runs Collectables R Us in the centre, said someone even came into his shop asking him to donate his stock to charity because they had heard they were closing.
He said: “We’ve just taken on a new unit in the centre – it needs a lot of work. Why would I be putting that much effort into it if we were just going to close down again straight away?
“It has had a really damaging effect on our business. We have people coming in saying ‘you’re not going to be here much longer’.
“We are struggling to get footfall through the centre, but we are here, and we are here to stay for as long as we can stay here.
“The last few weeks, everything has just gone flat. But it could be years before we have to move.”
Despite the bad press it gets, the Chilterns actually has a number of successful and independent businesses inside it.
The Air Raid Shelter Café is the best High Wycombe café on TripAdvisor for customer reviews, while Collectables R Us managed through the pandemic by improving its website and online ordering system.
Tabletop Republic, an independent business for gamers, is one of the biggest in the south east of its kind.
Chris said: “We have got so many amazing shops in here and it is so frustrating, because for the first time in a decade, you can actually walk through the Chilterns and not see that many empty units.
“I walk past other restaurants and cafes in the town and I know we have the better product, but we just don’t have the footfall.”
He has suggested a number of ways more shoppers could be encouraged into the centre, including hosting indoor markets there, and for the council to give some money for start-up businesses to open a unit.
Darryl urged for more support for independents in the town – and for more publicity for the businesses in the Chilterns to help them survive during this uncertain time.
He said: “Lots of businesses have gone down the pan over the last year but the rents on shop units are still so high – it’s baffling.”
Buckinghamshire Council is awaiting £11.8 million from the government as part of its Future High Streets Funding, which Chris hopes could be used to subsidise local businesses in a bid to support them.
Chris added: “There is so much love for the café and it would be such a shame if we had to close. I don’t want to lose the brand, I want to save it. The lockdown hangover is still really affecting us. We need support.”
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