Your say on your local area

Our high streets should be where we can buy food and other necessities, meet people and visit doctors/dentists and other health practitioners, go to the gym etc. and partake in leisure activities. The high street should be community driven and provide employment for locals. Residents should have more of a say in the high street plan which should consider air, noise and environmental pollution generally. If you must have your fast food ubereats and deliveroo etc. then do it on bicycles and stop killing us with your air pollution and destroying our quality of life with your noise pollution. London Assembly has to start showing some leadership otherwise what's the point of having a body such as this.

We have to show more consideration for the natural world and where we fit into it instead of destroying it for our immediate gratification. We are on this planet for less than the blink of an eye in the grand timeline of existence.

My local high street in Wimbledon village is constantly under threat.its scary to see how many shops are coming and going in such a short amount of time.

When talking to local residents it's very clear to see the number 1 downfall of the high street is the council.

These shops are getting the footfall however parking is restricted to 1 hour and the wardens are like vultures. How can you go to the high street and use shops  hairdressers and restaurants in 1 hour?!

The other thing councils control are the buisness rates. Just because of the location businesses are charged sky high rates. Theres no justification for them. 1 restaurant in my high street get charged £100000 a year on buisness rates, not to mention the greedy landlords rates! 

They're lining their pockets at the expense of independent retailers and this cycle has to end if they're to survive.

we need shops that offer more choices for low income families. Our high street is extremely gentrified despite being in hackney and you can see from just walking down it that only the middle class are really able to utilise it. It creates a separation between the classes which is sad to see. 

Could really do with the next shop to open up not being yet another another ridiculously overpriced eatery!

I just want to be able to buy a nice freshly made sandwich without the useless plastic, then be able to eat it in the park with my friends without choking on car fumes. Also some items are hard to find in stores and terrible to buy online... like some good sourdough bread. I can only get it fresh at a reasonable price at the farmers market, once a month! Otherwise I have to make do with sainsbury's and that is if it is even available. And I'm not just being picky, it is the only kind of bread I can eat without being ill and foggy due to the commercial yeast. It's a real struggle. 

High street shops are not just stifled by larger out of town stores that can deliver at lower prices.

Higher and higher rents are one of the most important factors in shops closing down. Many landlords act like parasites. Sitting on a land and levying rent form shop keepers who pass it on to shoppers to the limit that shoppers find lower prices in online products and turn away from the shops which forces them to close down. A few years ago I met someone who turned out to be a landlord. I asked him what do you do and he simply said, try to push rents higher and higher.

Higher rates by local authorities due to central government cuts are another reason.

Land ownership particularly by landlords with large portfolios and uncapped rents is a disease in our era inherited from the middle ages and the landed classes.

We need rent reform to cap rents.

We need land reform to end the injustice of the accumulation of God given resources in the hands of the few who like parasites feed on the toil of the rest of the population.

Low wages amongst a large portion of the population do not give them the spending power needed by high street shops. The government cuts to social welfare have exacerbated this, some people have to think twice to decide to spend money on a small meal outside and for others even a cup of tea.

Well said. My local high street also fails on disabled parking as well as poor access for wheelchair users and assistance dogs.

We need to encourage high streets to turn into more of a leisure destination than purely for shopping, because the switch to online shopping has made operating many shops uneconomic - this means making the spaces more attractive (and more pedestrianised), enabling cafes and bars to use the outside space, encouraging markets and street food vendors and so on. There is still a demand for some shops, but they will tend to be more specialist ones. Most Dutch town centres seem to be thriving, and this is the pattern that is followed there - and in fact the recent mini-Holland work in Walthamstow seems to bear this out. To help, rents and rates need to be set at a level that start-up businesses can handle, rather than so high that only large chains can afford them (and of course are now finding that even they can't...)

I feel that ordinary people cannot influence what goes on in the high street unless they are ' important ' people. Also developers waving wads of cash in front of the council is more influential.

There are too many flats being built in or near our high street. Whetstone is one, Finsbury Park area is another. Too many people causing congestion and stretching our already underfunded services.

By leaving the roads in our high street WITHOUT providing reasonable parking charges or a Good transport infrastructure is driving people from the high street.

Take Barnet high street now made pretty.

Disabled parking is the same as normal parking + 1 hour. Surely if charged it should be 3 hours if they have to pay.

I see no reason why disabled people should not pay £1 for 3 hours for parking in car parks.

I would like to have a say in what sort of shops, restaurants or any other businesses populate the high street. Currently the shops on my high street are shops that nobody buys in and they are undermining the standards of the area. 

My local high street is Balham which has seen a lot of gentrification over the last decade, but in the last 12 months has been badly hit by a LOT of store and restaurant closures. There are so many boarded up shops and local cafe and shop owners say they cannot afford the high rents and business rates in Balham. These independent businesses need to be supported by local government and not at the mercy of greedy landlords!

Also we need more diversity on our high streets. It is all hairdressers, phone shops and coffee shops. There is nowhere to buy clothes, household items, books etc. I think a local market would work well and bring more of a community feel back to the area.

My local high streets are Brixton and Streatham but with the demise of Pratts in Streatham and Bon Marche in Brixton, there is nothing worth going to either high street for.  Streatham is now full of charity shops, budget shops and coffee shops and Brixton is just a mess - it used to be a "destination" back in the 60's and 70s where, along with Bon Marche, there was also BHS, Littlewoods, Woolworths, C&A, Times Furnishers, Saxone/Lilley & Skinners, Batas, Freeman Hardy Willis (all shoe shops), James Walker the jewellers and a host of decent quality independent shops.  Now it is just a mish-mash and the covered markets (Market Row and Granville Arcade) have been taken over by eateries and thereby have completely lost their character.  Gentrification is not always a good thing.  The loss of Brixton's multi-storey car park does not help either:  it is not always convenient to hop on a bus if one is laden with shopping.  I am also within reach of West Norwood and Clapham high streets and, sadly, there is not much at either location worth making the journey.  It's a sorry state of affairs, compounded by exhorbitant rents and rates, and a local council that doesn't care..

The main town centres I go to are Burnt Oak and surrounds.  I would like a 20 mph speed limit on all council and TFL controlled roads that are where we shop.

Shopping online is inconvenient because you have to wait in, skipping work, and it is expensive because you pay for delivery.

I am a gardener and buy plants online.  I couldn't get them in person because I don't have a car to drive hundreds of miles to a nursery or large garden centre; as much as I would like to support the Birchen Grove Garden centre it's half an hour walk from the bus stop, and carrying compost you can see the problem.  It would be a long bike ride carrying stuff that is often fragile.

I think the Mayor should look at rent control on the high street so that shopkeepers don't get pushed out of business.

For the local economy, I would like to see greater restrictions on supermarkets and shopping centres: the plastics they produce, the traffic, parking, deliveries, land use, and buildings energy use.  Similar restrictions should be made to online shopping.  Amazon should pay a living wage, recognise unions and pressure groups, not silence the workers.  In stead of giving money away, the boss should pay tax.  It is obscene. 

For Green spaces, I would like all car parks and pavements to have trees, and flood sustainable pavement not tar mac.  Silk Stream at Burnt Oak Library is under ground and should be brought back above ground for enjoyment of pedestrians and bike riders.

Bike parking should be clean as I keep my bike indoors and don't want to track human waste into my lounge.

The ban on pavement parking should be enforced here when it is not.

Phone boxes should be removed as they are not used. Station developments should protect existing trees and green spaces enhanced not bulldozed.

Just a thought. A number od the questions are not clear.  it needs to be longer or the questions more honed or the answer options increased. As an  example:

"Thinking about your local high street over the last five years, do you think that is has improved, got worse or stayed about the same?"

It does not indicate what element has improved. For example, if new paving has been laid this may be considered by some shoppers to be an improvement to the high street area but does it necessarily improve the shopping experience or the range of retailers?

in terms of general improvement there needs to be better control (licensing?) on types of shop. For example ours has 24 shops 9 of which are fast food/take away type.  

decisions are made for financial reasons not the community in mind. Always about money in London and not about people's welfare and looking after people's health. More green areas and cleaner air. and clean the streets, please. Most are filled with rubbish. more recycling bins and more security. 

As far as developments or shops go in Brixton, I feel like the decisions are largely made before I hear about them and the decisions are made for financial reasons not the community in mind. 

Residents should be consulted at the very start of the planning process. Or when resident aren't currently consulted - we should be! We can't keep hearing about the gentrification of Brixton yet still have popular shops/restaurants shut down because of rent increases. We need long term support for independent businesses, stop landlords taking advantage of commercial properties (look at Kaff or Fujiyama). We need rent control (which I know sadiq is hoping to introduce in his next term for private tenants - and it is desperately needed) but it needs to happen for commercial tenants - I'm sick of seeing popular local businesses disappearing because of money grabbing landlords. Protect the area. 
 

If anything should be stopped, it is excessive housing "development"  and noisy vehicles (scooters, cars, sub-woofers)