T.E.Roberts demolition
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Posts
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So they’re going to knock down the former T.E.Roberts store.Well I for one haven’t missed them!I went there with a mate to try and get a repair done for him some years ago after their engineer said he could do the job.Upon entering the store we were asked if the item was bought there,so we said no.We were then told they were too busy to help in a very curt manner by Miss Frosty. Another time my brother-in-law went for pl plugs to install a satellite dish.Asked if the equipment was bought there.we said no.The pl plugs were thrown across the counter so they received the three pounds the same way! Good riddance to bad rubbish.
On a number of occasions I took appliances there for repair (not bought from there). They would check the item over and give a quote for repair. They would then repair the item on site. Very few companies who sell electrical appliances actually do their own repairs these days.
I have bought a few items over the years and I feel it is a shame that we are losing independent traders these days. Despite what other posters may say, you would always get a better customer service than if you bought say a TV from Tesco or an electrical giant such as Currys etc
” One interesting point in the Design and Access Statement refers to the choice of location, noting: “The site is outside of the central retail area defined by Wrexham Council, and is on the peripheral of the commercial district. “
“The council has indicated a preference for town centre office development outside of the central shopping zone.”
Yes that is an interesting point.
Is that statement the view from Unite The Union or from Wrexham Council ?
King Street was once a major part of retailing in Wrexham, with MotorMania, Phase One Records, T E Roberts, Laminate Flooring, Jones The Computer, Ecclestons Bakery, Merit Travel, Barnes The Chemist, Wrexham Office Supplies, Wrexham Leader Office, Prontaprint etc, as well as estate agents, solicitors , hairdressers and tattooists. Go back far enough you would have Wrexham Scooters and the milk bar cafe.So at some point a decision was made that King Street is peripheral, by that it looks like they mean excluded, I wonder if the business owners were formally informed of this stance. Along with a revision of their business rates, presumably some of them thought they were trading in the town centre, albeit not the epicentre, that would have been Woolworths.
This maybe explains why King Street never benefited from Christmas decorations, or if ever, fairly poor efforts. It wasn’t in the ” Central Shopping Zone “.
Yet for many visitors coming to Wrexham the first shopping street they see will be …. King Street.
What is the cunning plan ?Instead of running down this area, and hampering it with a stupidly badly designed and dangerousbus station King Street should have been assisted and developed into an attractive first stop for shoppers.
Now by any account there truly is next to no retail there, which is a shame.
Having a new office block for Unite The Union is better than a run down derelict shop front, although people will have their own opinions about how useful this will be for the people of Wrexham. Being a Union office will it even pay business rates, or are they exempt ?
Employing 20 odd staff has to be good, but I would have liked to have seen a Tesco Express or similar in its place. It could even be a good site for a new M & S – save Wrexham shoppers getting on the D1 to Chester !
This would be a much bigger boost for footfall in the area, and help the taxi drivers also.
Its probably too late but if we make King Street into offices the shopping will be gone for good – which is bound to have a detrimental effect on overall town centre trading – even for the ones in the actual town centre !There must be existing office space suitable for Unite in Wrexham instead of converting shops ? What about the old job centre in Regent Street – or suchlike.
Katia has some good points but has overlooked the fact that the drop off for the buses is actually outside the old Fat Cat so many people into town will not be walking in the King Street area. A Tesco Express or similar would need to have easy access car parking to boost the trade level as walking customers alone would be too low a figure to make this type of retail outlet viable.
The CoOp in King Street is one of their most profitable per square foot stores but they are catching footfall on the way from the bus station and on return so a double opportunity.
As stated in previous threads the biggest change to King Street will be in the next couple of years with the reduction of Estate Agent outlets with more people searching on line- (at present there are twelve in the King Street/Lord Street area)I haven’t overlooked the bus drop off being outside Fat Cat, Dylan, if M&S put a Simply Food ( for example ) in King Street, I am confident plenty of people will manage to find it.
The planning proposal states there will be spaces for 14 cars and mentions a vehicle access to Grosvenor Road, you could have entry from King Street, exit onto Grosvenor Road. Completely impractical perhaps, but I’m just throwing ideas out here.
In fact if looking at the planning, it doesn’t suggest Unite are expecting to be all that busy with either permanent staff or visitors, so it seems a bit of a waste for what should be a prime retail location instead.
If we are going to start knocking down buildings in King Street, and why not, we could even end up with a mini Morrisons, tiny TESCO, a little ASDA and a small Sainsburys – we know how they group themselves together.
King Street could be brilliant for bus shoppers, and taxis would be really busy also. The independent traders could spread themselves around this new hub and flourish.
If we build it they will come !Has to be better than office space.
A lot of older people who catch the bus into & out of town would benefit from a mini
M & S food hall near the bus station. A post office wouldn’t come amiss either or a bank.@zinger 14435 wrote:
A lot of older people who catch the bus into & out of town would benefit from a mini
M & S food hall near the bus station. A post office wouldn’t come amiss either or a bank.Spot On Definitely True … Will it happen in Wrexham Definitely Not :(:(
Why is it that the right thing is never done in Wrexham, just 50% of the time would be good..
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