Jesmond shop owners fear for their future

Oct 26 2009 by Richard Fletcher, The Journal

SHOP owners are warning it may be the “beginning of the end” for independent stores in Newcastle after a council ignored pleas from hundreds of people.

Retailers in Clayton Road, Jesmond, had fought to stop a shop on the street, formerly a lingerie store, being turned into offices working with the shutters down.

But despite an 850-signature petition and a letter from MP Jim Cousins, council officers rather than elected officials decided to allow the change of use.

Now shop owners left bewildered by the council’s decision fear for the future of smaller shops in the city and claim the fewer boutiques there are on the row, the fewer casual shoppers will bother going there.

They are also worried it will open the door for many other shop fronts to be turned into offices, and believe their street of independent boutiques will become more like Gosforth High Street or Shields Road.

Auriol Rickwood-Dodsworth from clothes shop Aura said: “It will be the beginning of the end for Clayton Road as far as retail is concerned. We all really need each other for support and for footfall, which in this climate is diminishing.”