Recession Road: Wetherby
This post is from our Recession Road series, part of our special report on the global downturn.
We're not priming our colleagues to e-mail the blog, honest, but the BBC's North of England correspondent Danny Savage was reading it and dropped us a line today. He's in Wetherby, just off the A1. We passed through this evening, so we thought we'd mention some of Danny's ponderings on the town, which he describes as "fairly up-market".
"The shops here seem to be doing quite well but the majority of the pubs in the town have signs advertising that the lease or the business is for sale. I think landlords [would say] people are cutting back and just not using the pubs as much as they used to. Property prices, like everywhere, have been dropping... a bit of a new thing to those living in the area known as the 'golden triangle' between York, Leeds and Harrogate.
"The bins of the town stand un-emptied as we are into the second week of a refuse workers strike in the Leeds area. The council want to equalise men and women's pay but are bringing down the pay of the men to match the women. There seems to be strong public support for the strikers and is a good example of public spending issues in a recession."
And finally, we took Danny's advice by looking out for the 'Dr Who' tardis outside the police station - a photo op that was just too hard to resist.
You can read an explanation of our Recession Road series here. Words: Paula Dear; Images: Phil Coomes.
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Cannot believe a either the newsagent's window or the Tardis is newsworthy or representative of the recession, perhaps the the fish & chip shop next door was too busy to look sufficiently depressed.
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Indeed there are 'Businesses For Sale' or 'Leases up for renewal' but the people of Wetherby have been cutting back for a number of years regarding the amount of money they spend in pubs by not going any more. If the Landlords tried to encourage people of all ages rather than just the youger element through the doors they might succeed in having a busy pub and earning a good living. It may also have something to do with the price differential of alcohol between the pubs and the supermarket in the town.
House prices may have fallen but only to there true level (not the over inflated prices dreampt up by estate agents just because we live in the so called golden triangle) for people who really want to sell and not those just trying to cash in.
As far as the recession and it's effect on the rest of Wetherby then it's very minimal which I guess it not what you want to hear.
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As a local shop in Wetherby selling lifestyle products, we have seen turnover fall by 30% this year, with a drop in the previous years too. The recession is here and the effect is plain to see, with empty shops and many struggling businesses. The effect is not minimal and some serious decisions are going to have to be made regarding my own shop once we get into 2010. All we can hope for is a good run into 2010 but to be honest I don't know if that will happen, I can only hope......
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What on earth are "lifestyle products"?
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How many shops are empty in Wetherby town centre? The answer is 3 I believe. They are:-
The chemists which has relocated to Crossley street
The Building Society which has relocated to the Horsfair centre
The old 'Jumpers' shop which has been closed since before the recession started
Businesses may be struggling but maybe they are not selling things that people need, have alreasdy got or can find cheaper elsewhere.
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