HCZ’s great chance for town’s business

This project, I believe, is a great opportunity for the businesses in Bradford on Avon and for Bradford on Avon itself, and yet the businesses and business owners get no say in whether this project should go ahead or not.

Why? because it was decided to put it to a town vote and only residents in Bradford on Avon are allowed, therefore, to vote.

But do you realise that businesses are already voting, and have been for a while – but not in a way that is good for them or the town. They are voting by closing their business. In the first three weeks of 2015 we have already seen three businesses decide to shut their doors for the last time.

Walk around the town and you will see how many other shop fronts are lying empty; it is a downward spiral that will end with the town sporting empty shopfronts with the ‘tumbleweed of the west’ (rubbish) swirling around in eddies and piling up in the barren doorways, doorways that will perhaps only open again to a charity shop or perhaps a Poundland (not that I have anything against either – I personally use both, but is this what you want for your town centre?) For Bradford on Avon to keep up and not lose its chocolate box appeal we need to do something and I personally think that the HCZ is a step in the right direction. I am not saying that it will solve all our problems overnight.

Let’s face it, the town sits on an A road, so there will always be traffic. However, this will let everyone know that all types of traffic, be it motorised, bicycles or on foot, are welcome in the town centre and that they share the space, perhaps not quite equally, but certainly withmore attention given to foot traffic.

It will make the town a more attractive space to be in, allowing us to encourage more visitors to the town centre, which will in turn give way to revitalising the shopping experience for everyone.

A no vote will secure a town that is moving backwards, a town with fewer and fewer businesses (oh, and if you think there are highly successful businesses that will never go under and then the unsuccessful ones that don’t survive, think again; it is a fine line that we all walk – and it could be any of us that go next) and for you as residents there will be less and less to do in the town. Can you imagine The Swan, for example, which has stood in the same location as a hostelry since the 1500s, a venue that almost everyone in the town has some association with, closing its doors and perhaps becoming flats? A no vote is another nail in the coffin and another step towards this bleak future.

The opposition to the project seems to be made up of those who are frightened or concerned that it won’t work – for many different reasons, granted, but I say to you unless we try we won’t know. If we were all frightened that something was not going to work then you would not have a single business operating in the town centre; the business owners have all taken a substantial risk themselves in opening a business in the town and virtually all are supportive of this project.

So, if you are not sure or concerned it won’t work then why not support and believe in your local businesses, who are willing to take the risk. Give them a chance at running a successful, sustainable business and vote yes.

If you are a resident of Bradford on Avon who believes in this project, then please make your voice heard and come out to vote yes on February 6.

James Sullivan-Tailyour, The Swan Hotel and Restaurant, Church Street, Bradford on Avon.