you need a strong town centre traders group ... It needs to be determined
Determined to do what? It's hardly a criticism of traders to say that their main focus will be on the immediate profitability of their own businesses, and there is only so much time and effort any one will be prepared to invest in increasing collective goods such as increased footfall. A group of existing traders is also unlikely to hold together long if it tries to encourage investment into Sydenham Road; maybe as long as there are vacant properties, and any business coming in is not going to compete with any of the existing business.
Effective collective action for Sydenham Road has to depend on people who have an interest in making it happen, and the capacity. You mention local parks a success story which Sydenham Road could emulate. The difference is that as well as the small groups of dedicated local people, there is also a well run local parks department, with professional staff who can help find funding for the investment which has gone into the parks. Facilities such as those recently installed in Mayow Park are paid for by the Council, I believe - certainly not by the Friends of Mayow Park; such community groups just do not have the resources. Also, there aren't some 300+ separate businesses concerned with parks whose main concern will nonetheless be their own profitability, and not so much attracting investment which will ultimately push up rents.
An effective plan for Sydenham Road has to match aims - what any group might be determined to do - with people involved in such a group with the interest and capacity to achieve such aims. I'd not rule out Council involvement in principle, because good, effective local government officers, and Councillors, could just as much take pride in bringing investment into Sydenham Road as their colleagues in the parks department do on their side. Except that all our Town Centre Managers got cut last year.
There are two other types of player who I have imagined with an effective long run interest in promoting Sydenham Road and attracting investment. One is commercial landlords; a livelier High Street will mean higher rents and property valuations. Enlightened commercial landlords - they do exist - will also see the advantage of offering low rents for creative start up businesses, which work for them as a permanent advertisement "come invest here, this is a fun and interesting place to be", until such time as they can find tenants to pay serious money. So my starting point would be an investors group, rather than a traders' group - although enlightened investors only, please. Such a group would still have some internal conflicts of interest, but not as many as with a traders' group, I think. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of such initiatives working elsewhere? Even if not supported financially by a Council, they would still have to work closely with it.
The other sort of player who might make things happen would be an agent of some kind, rather than an investor, So probably an estate agent specialising in commercial rental, if such a specialisation exists - I am just thinking through the economic logic. In any case, such an agent would start from getting to know the actual and potential commercial landlords. Such an agent might be able to monetise the local knowledge acquired - and not just commercial, but also community stuff as appearing on the Forum - by being paid as a local consultant. Has anyone ever heard of such?
Whatever the nature of such a role, there would also have to be a plan - i.e. my original question of what it was determined to do - and an understanding of how this worked for Sydenham traders and the wider community. The plan would have to go far beyond what is understood by planning in documents such as the Lewisham LDF referred to above, although it would have to embrace it, so anyone or any group fulfilling such a role would have to be able to work effectively with Lewisham planners, and any Localism Act Neighbourhood Forum. But they would also need to work on a marketing strategy for the area, which is where many of Lee's ideas would come in, and building up / identifying databases, which is where my thoughts typically turn.
Given what I have written in other threads on this Forum about Lewisham Council, I'm not expecting them to approach me to ask me to work with them on this, although I would welcome the chance to make some contribution. If others better able to get along with the current Lewisham Council could manage something instead, then that would be great. I have my doubts, however, about Lewisham's capacity to change; they have too much baggage of failed initiatives from the last ten years, which are never properly assessed, so never given a decent burial.
(Edited to remove photo previously posted without permission, for which I apologise)
