NEW OPENINGS, NEW CLOSINGS

[leenewham]

Shame they haven't read any of the town entre guidance on shop fronts, this breaks all the planning rules. It's food for gods sake, make it looks inviting instead of bloody awful.

[Annie.]

Oh! For gods sake!

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[Voyageur]

We have a polish shop up the hill in CP that has been going strong for some years now. Great for spices, soup mixes and cherry vodka

[leenewham]

I've nothing against Polish/Russian/shops (polski skleps), infact we have worked with one in North London and have designed packaging for Ex Soviet block countries. They can look great. But it's a shame that once again a shop has opened with out any reference to guidelines or consideration for appearance and doesn't add anything positive to the streetscape.

[Annie.]

Shame they haven't read any of the town entre guidance on shop fronts, this breaks all the planning rules. It's food for gods sake, make it looks inviting instead of bloody awful.

If this breaks all the planning rules,then why is it allowed?

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[leenewham]

I'd guess that it wasn't Annie.

Most shops ignore planning. It's so difficult to police, councils are understaffed etc.

[Annie.]

Perhaps an example should be made of this one,might just pull the rest into control.

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[Tim Lund]

Shame they haven't read any of the town centre guidance on shop fronts, this breaks all the planning rules. It's food for gods sake, make it looks inviting instead of bloody awful.

If this breaks all the planning rules,then why is it allowed?

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On an important point to detail, Lee is wrong to say it 'this breaks all the planning rules' - it is fair and square an A1 use, so fits in with this planning rule to which Chris Best attaches such importance.

The consequence of insisting that we maintain a higher percentage of such uses than the market will bear is to artificially increase competition - from such hopeful new ventures as this - and undermine the profitability of the sort of the existing traditional businesses such policies are meant to preserve.

Such are the economic consequences of Chris Best, and perhaps a clue to why, for local businesses, planning rules seem just a nuisance, rather than what they should be, namely part of a system to allow them to deliver collectively a better high street. But that depends of keeping unglamourous Council jobs in enforcement, which is clearly not a Lewisham priority.

[Deep Sigh]

Shame they haven't read any of the town entre guidance on shop fronts, this breaks all the planning rules. It's food for gods sake, make it looks inviting instead of bloody awful.

Awful is in the eye of the beholder - it looks inviting enough to me. A little garish, but blimey I'd rather have some colour and pictures of what look like delicious foodstuffs than another generic convenience store stacked high with Tennents Super eh? There are so many awful shops on our streets, this one looks better than 90% of them.

[leenewham]

Tim, I mean rules for shop signage.

Pin hole roller shutters are not allowed and need planning.

Back lit boxes are not allowed in the conservation area and illuminated signs need planning.

Fully covered windows need advertising consent etc etc etc.

You know what I meant Tim!

[Eagle]

Looks a great deal better than many outlets in SE 26.

If we have to many regulations , some people will be put of opening at all.

[Tim Lund]

You know what I meant Tim!

Well, I didn't know the chapter and verse of what you meant, but of course I understood the intent. But my response was to bring out how 'planning', which should work to curb certain ill-effects of market forces, has become part of the problem, so is ignored as far as possible by serious businesses, while other businesses appear to operate in complete ignorance of it.

Deep Sigh - I sympathise, although I also recognise that Lee does understand these sorts of visual design issues better than me. As it happens, I was alerted to this new opening by one of my family who was excited by the prospect of buying products there not available in other local shops. It's similar to the difference of stress between Lee and myself over the Penge Food Centre, whose shop front is fairly garish, but what it sells is amazing - I go there now as much as to the Co-op.

I don't dismiss the sorts of planning policies Lee mentions, but I think they need to be 'owned' by those successful new businesses which do come here. Unfortunately they appear more to be imposed, and, even when there is sense behind them, will be dimissed as senseless, arbitrary bureaucracy. I would like to see a more inclusive High Street, as I wrote here

'Ethnic' stores are the vibrant future of HIgh Streets across London. What makes a store 'ethnic'? That the people working there aren't white European? I think that makes the decent shops G-Man mentions - PFC, Fresh n Fruity, Billings - ethnic. The difference is that a good number of white Europeans like me shop there - and more of us will as we get to know them, and they market themselves. That's what I was thinking of in the thread "Support your local Turkish Supermarket", suggesting they get someone to tell us more about how to use what they sell.

If Lewisham Council and the new Town Team can engage with such businesses in this way, and avoid teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs, we will be on the way to sensible planning being supported across the board.

[owlwise]

I just hope that's a temporary window to cover up the fit-out inside until they open... It is awful and cheap looking and shouldn't be allowed as a permanent shopfront.

As a resident of Sydenham I am getting fed up with the low quality, garish and shoddy shopfronts of most of the shops on Sydenham Road and with the disregard of the owners/leaseholders and the council granting planning permission for them. Their visual impact on Sydenham Road as a whole gives a huge negative impression on the area.

[Annie.]

I just hope that's a temporary window to cover up the fit-out inside until they open... It is awful and cheap looking and shouldn't be allowed as a permanent shopfront.

As a resident of Sydenham I am getting fed up with the low quality, garish and shoddy shopfronts of most of the shops on Sydenham Road and with the disregard of the owners/leaseholders and the council granting planning permission for them. Their visual impact on Sydenham Road as a whole gives a huge negative impression on the area.

I think you will find its permanent.

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[Eagle]

Sydenham Road is not Piccadilly and will never be so. This shop's frontage looks better than many of the current occupants , be they nail parlours , tanning studios etc etc.

Some tolerance please. I like some Central and Eastern European food and will pop in.

[leenewham]

I think standards are good. If we really think it's ok to have shoddy, generic, tacky shop signage just because most other ones are worse, then it's a sorry state of affairs.

I wouldn't say to my son 'its ok to swear because lots of other people do' or 'it's ok to spit in the street because lots of other people do' or 'it's ok to drop litter because lots of other people do', or 'don't worry about your exam results, lots of other kids failed them too'.

And that's go nothing to do with the fact that he's 11 months old!

Once our shops looked proud of themselves, store owners would be photographed proudly outside their stores, fruit and vegetables would be beautifully displayed, the most humble of businesses would be beautifully decorated with the art of local signwriters, every shop had a number and very often the name of the street on their shop front to show that they were proud of where they were (which is why we did it on Billings).

It's a shame, because how shops look affect the whole street. A few millions quids worth of paving and railings can't disguise rubbish shop fronts and signage.

[Annie.]

Well said Lee,
I was hoping with the likes of Billings taking a pride in its shop front that others would follow,I think the new Eastern european shop looks gaudy and out of place,and I wont be shopping there.
Findaproperty.com is looking more appealing each time another shop opens without regard to the highstreet and how it looks.

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[biscuitman1978]

If people think something has been done without the necessary permission or consent and they feel strongly about it they should report it to the Council's planning enforcement team:

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/p ... fault.aspx

Completing the form needn't take more than a few minutes.

If you don't a get satisfactory response, contact one of your ward councillors and ask them to put pressure on the enforcement team.

[Stefan]

maybe rather dismissing a new shop straight away and complain to the authorities, why not work with them rather against them, why cant the sydenham society or local counciler pay them a visit, explain the situation to them, let them know what kind of help and grants are out there, what the locals expect from a new shopfront and make them aware of the forum, it may be the owners are thinking that the design is great and adds to the highstreet and happy to change it if it causes just a stir, also worth remebering that there are only a handful of people on here complaining so some locals might just be pleased that a new shop is opening

[Voyageur]

maybe rather dismissing a new shop straight away and complain to the authorities, why not work with them rather against them, why cant the sydenham society or local counciler pay them a visit, explain the situation to them, let them know what kind of help and grants are out there, what the locals expect from a new shopfront and make them aware of the forum, it may be the owners are thinking that the design is great and adds to the highstreet and happy to change it if it causes just a stir, also worth remebering that there are only a handful of people on here complaining so some locals might just be pleased that a new shop is opening

Very good points.