Tell us about your high streets

High streets need to be cleaned . Overflowing litter bins are a massive environmental blight, and should be emptied every day, and every evening.   Street sweepers have all but gone, as cash-strapped councils keep sweeping to the minimum. 

In summer, town centre streets need to be washed down, once a week. Once a fortnight. They get very sticky, and dirty.

 Good landscaping-- good paving, trees, signage-- seats--- is important.  It is noteworthy that local centres like Wallington (in Sutton Council area) Addiscombe, South End and London Road  (in Croydon) have all benefited hugely from such works in last decade, and... they are looking far better, and attract many more people to shop.  Parking..,.,we NEED enough public cheap parking to allow residents, shoppers and businesses to  park for periods of up to a  few hours. Cars are going electric-- so pollution will drop.

Finally, a "bus arrivals dot-matrix display" in all town bus stops is needed. They are great ! 

I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel. Functional, prosperous, community-focussed high streets exist in many parts of the country already.

I would argue these healthy high streets have become less common in London, partly because of the scale of our city, its mobile population, and the need to provide goods on a very large scale.

However as others have noted, high streets in London are becoming very desirable for particular shops: independent or small-chain, organic foods, ethnic foods, coffee shops, co-working spaces, independent restaurants. In many ways this reflects the traditional high street; in 2020 this means everything that is not available in a supermarket or department store.

High streets are as relevant as they always were. What’s being provided needs to change.

Alongside this we need the Mayor to take a leading role in transforming public spaces to be more healthy and sustainable. Greener spaces, less or preferably no private transport, more communal or community spaces, more accessible public facilities.

Also, on a personal note, it would be great to recognise that the way people use public houses has changed significantly since pubs started to disappear from our high streets. There is a significant and growing demand for community-focussed, independent pubs and bars which become hubs for community activity, as well as nice places to eat and drink. The Mayor needs to encourage the reintroduction of the public house as an essential community asset to every high street.

Wider pavements for cafes to put terraces in summer.

Small shops (food, clothes, gifts) encouraged/incentivised.

Trees and flowers.

Sculptures and artwork in more places.

Buskers encouraged; spontaneous live music encouraged through thoughtful spatial design.

Despite what the majority of people who populate these discussions would like to think, the last two TfL surveys of actual shoppers on London High Streets have found only tiny minorities – too small to report with any degree of statistical confidence – want cycle lanes. So please, focus on the things that the MAJORITY of people would like to see – free or reasonably priced parking, good public transport, pavements free of lycra louts and a great range of shops.

I live in Surrey Docks/ Canada Water and our hight street has a fantastic leisure centre from 1965 which sadly has been run down by Southwark Council.
Our Leisure Centre Seven Islands used to have slides, diving boards, teaching pool, creche, has even a viewing gallery for races, to make it a valid 25 meter "short course" it would need only £160,000 rigid moveable bulkhead. The site is the best and could take a 50 meter pool if the cash became available.
Sadly our Council is 20% partner with British Land and plans to demolish this wonderful facility and to replace it with 25 meters of prefabricated rubbish on top of a train line. Both the new proposed site and what goes inside can't hold a candle to Seven Islands.
Not only all this but the Council wants to pay up to 35 million pounds for such rubbish and to polute with demolition and reconstruction.
To refurbish our better pool would only cost 8 million pounds!
The new centre next to the tower of the flats of the rich will allow British Land to sell their expensive flats easier, while the poor are being quarantined far away as possible from the proposed Leisure Centre and the transport hub.
I am shocked to hear that Sadiq Khan has waved this contract through without checking it, while he wastes time in Brussels being what he is not and has no power to fix rents while in London the blood bath continues and our main facilities are taken away from us.

I think my local high streets in Richmond Upon Thames are generally lovely and fully of independent shops (especially St Margaret's). However, what I have noticed since moving here a year ago, is that the Richmond High Street seems to be less tidy and rather filthy, full of large bin bags outside of stores - not sure if the stores are at fault or if there is an issue with collection times? Also, a significant increase in homeless on the high street and bedding down in an area for long periods (months, even). I volunteer for a local charity that helps the homeless and understand that there is accommodation available and places that will offer support. There are a few stores that have 'going out of business' sale signs on store front for months on end. Is this regulated at all? The signs are unsightly and one questions the validity. Empty shops also seem to be taken over by either a Vaping business or an Ice-cream business - presumably, diversity of businesses are being considered. Lastly, there are retail shops that are likely struggling and unfortunately, a big one like Fraser's will eventually close (it already looks rather grim). The fault often is cited as being the takeover of online; however, rarely do I hear level of service mentioned and this is a big issue from my experiences. I go back repeatedly to the stores that offer a friendly, professional and welcoming service. Loneliness which is a huge problem, is something that a high street can offer support indirectly - I know that even on a bad day, if I visit my florist or book store or coffee shop for examples, and just have a quick chat with another customer or a server, that can make a world of difference. You just can't get that on-line! High streets are very important and serve a huge role in a community and am grateful for all who contribute to their sustainability, diversity, and improvement.

I see a lot of negativity but I feel my local high street in West Norwood is getting better and better, full of independent cafes and plenty of odds and ends shops that always have everything you need, the new library/cinema is a treat the local leisure centre is awesome. I love the charity shops, we need more of those types of swap shops to avoid fast fashion and waste. It's missing a decent shoe or clothes shop but I always get plenty of decent swag in the charity shops and there's online if I need it. Could do with less traffic though. Crossing the road can be a pain.

Penge High Street has some really fab cafes and local shops like the butcher, fishmonger and amazing Penge Food Centre (not to mention Lidl!). But there are a lot of bookies, pawnbrokers and takeaways. Replacing some of these with a couple of decent clothes shops and a bank would massively energise the area.

I would like to see less boarded up shops as it feels like the high street is dying. Business rates should be lowered so that new independent businesses can start up and it will also attract chain stores to come back. We have more charity shops now that have filled some of the empty gaps but we need more shops to fill the rest of the empty spaces. More parking facilities to encourage other people to come to our high street. Our market area that opens up each Thursday- Saturday needs regenerating with more stalls selling crafts and food. Maybe pedestrianise the high street to make it a safer place to shop.

I would like the government to step in when they see boarded up empty buildings for significant periods of time. At three very least, these should be opened up for locals to use for community events (youth events, exhibitions, music events and pop up events). I'm order to do this, I would suggest you hand over these properties to local coordinators who can manage the space better than landlords who are holding out for no reason. 

In addition, more needs to be done to encourage smaller trades to use shared spaces. There are a lot of old trades/ skills that are coming back. A local seamstress could for instance use spaces available in conjunction with a pottery or craft studio. Shops should not be used as one stop destinations. This would encourage more trade and shoppers may want to visit the high Street for smaller, unique items.

Finally, whilst I love a take away or charity shop as much as the next person, these should be limited to X3 each per high Street and we should encourage restaurants and more diversity rather than X3 kebab shops. 

To find out what needs should be met a research survey should be sent out with all possible shop fronts so that you know gaps. The mayor should step in and advertise the spaces depending on what is required for the high Street and not just to advertise gaps. 

We live on the Walworth Road which is a very busy high street in a relatively disadvantaged part of London. While we do face increased competition locally from new developments (at the E&C) and from online, the huge local residential density means that we have large numbers of residents within a short walk of the street from the surrounding areas to the east and west. We have a far higher proportion of shoppers who arrive at our high street on foot than any other town centre in Southwark by a significant margin (50% visit the W Rd on foot whereas the next highest in Southwark is 33%). So walking is the key way of getting to our shops. Although some improvements have been made to the pedestrian experience over the past decade there are still large parts of the road that revert from single carriageway to four lanes for long stretches which encourages high vehicle speeds, danger and intimidation and severance caused by motor vehicles. There is no green space at any point along the W Rd. Remarkably the only green space...a garden...that we had was built over by a new development about a decade ago. If we are to create an attractive environment that people are consciously drawn to on foot and do not unconsciously find barriers to avoid, all of those tools that we know improve the pedestrian environment need to be employed (carrigeway capacity reduction, traffic calming, prioritising public transport over general traffic, greening, having places to stop and rest...all of the healthy streets toolkit elements). Although there is a cost to this, the benefits of keeping this high street alive and thriving and supporting active travel - both on foot and cycling - to it (over general traffic movement through it) are absolutely huge and along with other initiatives such as helping local businesses to develop can ensure that the W Rd can continue to thrive and meet the needs of the thousands of people who live locally

Three main issues -

Rent is prohibitive and all highhigh streets are now just collections of charity shops. 

The shops just aren't open late enough. Sunday trading laws have been made completely redundant by the Internet so let the shops stay open longer and let people have the work. 

Parking is only possible if you pay to park by mobile phone. This assumes you have a phone with you, charged, etc at all times. 

I have lived in Morden all my life - over 45 years! Morden high street has just got worse and worse over the years. Now it's mainly charity shops! Most of the banks have also gone which is very depressing as I do use the bank and now have to travel elsewhere!  When I was growing up Morden had so many different stores and even a cinema (ibefore my time - in the sixties!). I go regularly go to Sutton but also Wimbledon, Croydon, Kingston, Epsom, Putney, New Malden and Worcester Park. The best shopping is at Kingston although the others aren't too bad. I think it would be good to have a few more independent shops in all these places. It's also good to have a departmental store as it provides a nice shopping experience. I notice that the high streets are always busy and overcrowded a lot of the time  - lots of people - they certainly are important to people. In fact, the reason I avoid some of them, some of the time are the crowds!!  I think not everyone likes to do online shopping - I don't! I would prefer to have more items available to buy in store rather than having to buy online. The high streets that seem to do best are the ones with cafes, restaurants, cinema, banks, as well as a wide range of shops. 

My local shopping high street is Sutton although I live in Morden, and travel through it to get to work via the tube station, it is not somewhere I would choose to 'go shopping' as there are not enough different types of shops there, it's mainly hairdressers, betting and charity shops and supermarkets.  No clothing, furniture or gift shops etc.  Sutton high street has had some development recently and is better than it was 5 years ago but there are still a lot of empty shops particularly at the north end.  However every time I have gone in to do any shopping on the high street recently I come away frustrated that there are not enough staff in the shops to provide a good service and I spend far too long queuing to pay.  As someone who suffers from Rheumatoid arthritis standing for long periods is painful so this puts me off going back and I often end up going home to order what I want from the internet.  I understand this is a vicious circle but if we want our high streets to thrive there needs to be more diversity to encourage more footfall to allow retailers to employ adequate resources.  

I love in Cricklewood & while I love where I live, the high street is blighted by excessive traffic. We definitely need new housing for people to live and also update some dilapidated parts of the town centre with new retail opportunities. However deeply concerned at increased levels of traffic & impact on existing & very busy rail infrastructure. There's unnecessary weekend free parking and single yellow lines on the broadway which need to be replaced with double yellow and red lines. 
 

we want to maintain the community spirit and friendly neighbourhood which can only be done by making sure independent business can thrive and residents can enjoy the local area.