Can this street survive?

IT is one of the most famous streets in York, renowned around the world.

Yet while the view of the Minster peeping between the tops of overhanging shop-fronts remains the same, all is not well in Shambles.

Wander down this celebrated street any weekday, and there will be plenty of people ambling along, peering in shop windows or queuing for a sandwich.

But not enough of them are going into shops to buy. Look closer and the results stare you in the face: shopfronts boarded up, To Let signs hanging forlornly in windows.

Head into Shambles from Pavement and there are two closed up shop-fronts: what used to be Something Different, which specialised in surnames and coats of arms; and Shambles Souvenirs And Gifts, right next door.

There is another closed shop on the left, next to Woodcarvers Of The Shambles. And plenty of other retailers admit to struggling.

A combination of high rents and rates and falling trade is responsible, according to Mike Robertson, who runs the Woodcarvers shop.

When he took over the shop five years ago, you couldn't see the other side of the street because of the sheer number of people thronging through it.

That is no longer the case. A combination of 9/11, the SARS and foot and mouth scares a few years ago, together with the floods, had a massive impact in reducing the number of tourists, Mike says - particularly big-spending Americans.

The Chinese and Japanese tourists who have replaced them don't spend in the same way. That makes it hard to survive in a street where business rates and rents are continually rising, he says.

City of York Council, which owns many of the shops in Shambles, stresses it has a duty to get the best possible rent it can. But that entirely misses the point, says Clare Proctor, proprietor of the Earl Grey Tearooms.

What is happening, she says, is that hopeful new businesses are being fooled into thinking they will be able to make a profit in Shambles, despite the high rates and rents, because it is such a famous city centre street.

"They pay high rents to get in because they think they are going to make a killing," she says.

"Then the troubles start. They soon realise that high rents, rates and increasing minimum wages have to be met - whether there is business or not."

The problem is many visitors walk through Shambles without buying anything. "So, the new businesses struggle on for a year - then realise that they are not going to make any money and they close down," Clare says. "You only have to check the council records to see the high turnover."

She isn't the only one to have noticed this. Mike Robertson says the shop next to him has changed hands twice, and is now up for rent again. Ian Swinton, at Shambles Butchers - the only butcher remaining on what used to be, long ago, a street of butchers - says that since he arrived ten years ago, most of the other shops on Shambles have changed hands at one time or another.

Those who do try to stick it out are left with the legacy of the fast turnover, Clare Proctor says - artificially high rents that are the result of the unrealistic expectations of new businesses who come in willing to pay them because they think they will still be able to profit, then often quickly fail.

Her own business is one of the more fortunate ones in Shambles, she admits. "We have managed to meet all the extra costs. But it is becoming increasingly difficult, and maybe the next unrealistic rent increase will see us off too. We are a tea room - there is only so much anyone is prepared to pay for a cup of tea!"

What's happening in Shambles is mirrored in other city centre streets.

Last week, The Press reported how national camera chain Snappy Snaps had been forced to close its Stonegate branch, claiming retailers were being driven out of the city's historic centre by high rents.

If things continue as they are, warns Clare Proctor, only the big store chains will be able to afford rents in York.

"While York does attract visitors because of its museums and historic buildings, most of those visitors also want a little retail therapy too," she says.

"Why do we get coachloads of Christmas shoppers for St Nicholas Fayre each November? A straw poll among our customers showed that they come for the Minster, the Jorvik Centre and the little cobbled streets with the different and interesting shops."

Continue as we are doing, however, and York will be just another chain store hell, she said. "And no one will want to take a trip to see that."

Shambles, meanwhile, where the shops are too small and too tied up with planning red-tape to interest the big chains, could end up with all the shops closed, she warned. "Does the council want a street of empty properties?"

Not all Shambles traders are so pessimistic.

Bruno Hannemann at Juicymoosey, the juice bar, says that since he took over the business last July he has done reasonably well. "It is not better or worse than we predicted," he said.

He believes Shambles is simply becoming a different kind if street, more of a normal' shopping street rather than purely a tourist destination.

He points as evidence to the new shops that have opened since he came, an antique shop and an art gallery. It is the souvenir places that are struggling, he says.

Maybe it isn't the best economic climate at the moment, he concedes. "But we have to adapt. It is not about sitting and moaning, but taking action. I believe that we can make a go of it."

He appears to be in a minority, however. Clare Proctor says Shambles retailers aren't asking for the earth, simply some sign from the council that it recognises the bigger picture and isn't out to squeeze businesses for all it can get.

This year, she says, rents went up 13 per cent, utility bills 50 per cent, while income was down ten per cent.

She would not expect rents to be capped, but couldn't a limit be put on the percentage rise? Couldn't councillors peg rent rises to something nearer inflation?

"I cannot totally argue against the council wanting commercial rents," she said. "But what are they looking for in this city? Do they have an overall plan, or is it just money, money, money?"

Council leaders on the spot

With council elections a couple of weeks off, we put party leaders on the spot on the question of city centre business rents and rates.

Liberal Democrats
THE CITY council has no direct say on business rates, which are independently set by a district valuer, pointed out Quentin Macdonald, Lib Dem executive member for corporate services.

There was, however, a tendency for central Government to look at business rates as a "milch cow", and there may be mileage, after the elections, in lobbying to see whether there was any chance of reductions. "But I'm not hopeful."

On rents, the council had a duty to treat its property portfolio on a "commercial basis". But the spread of chain stores at the expense of small, individual shops was a problem, both nationally and in York, he acknowledged.

"I will undertake, should I get returned at the election and still be in the same job, to take a separate look at the property portfolio and what kinds of rents we are looking at," he said. "But we can't make any promises."

Labour
IT IS important to maintain a range and diversity of shops in York, says Labour leader Dave Merritt. "That is part of the character and attractiveness of the city."

But again, he stressed, the council had a duty to its tax payers to obtain a commercial rent from its properties.

Businesses moving into streets such as Shambles had to judge whether they could make a go of things.

"We cannot take responsibility for independent businesses' own decisions," he said.

The council could, however, do what it could to try to attract quirky independent shops to set up in less well-known city centre streets, such as the Spanish quarter, Swinegate and Gillygate, he said. And it could talk to city centre businesses to ensure that while rents were commercial, they were not over-heated.

Conservatives
THE council was committed by national Best Value policy to getting as much income from its properties as possible, said John Galvin, the Conservative agent for York. But such outside pressures not withstanding, he would have thought local authorities were "perfectly entitled" to set their own levels of rent for their own properties, he said.

If it was true that there was a high turnover of businesses in Shambles or streets like it, the council should try to find out why, he said. "There needs to be real dialogue with local businesses."

It would be too easy to say just slash rents. "But we cannot afford to have business opening and closing, opening and closing," he said. "We have to address that."

Greens
THE level of business rates and rents in city centre streets such as Stonegate are as high as anywhere in the country, said Green candidate for Fishergate Dave Taylor, which is an "utterly ridiculous" situation.

The council may not be able to do anything directly about high business rates, he said - but it could and should lobby central Government for a reduction.

On rents, the council had a policy of trying to "sweat its assets" - ie milk all the rent it could out of them. The possibility of subsidised rents for certain kinds of small business should be explored, he said.

York was famed for the unique quality of its small local shops, and that had to be maintained. "The discerning tourist wants to come to a city where everything is not the same as everywhere else," he said.