Team taking on 'crime and grime' in Wellington
A team trying to regenerate Wellington aims to lower business rates and beat the "crime and grime" of the high street in an effort to turn around the town's fortunes.
Business owners who do not understand the needs of independent shops and anti-social behaviour are just two of the hurdles highlighted by Team Wellington to bring the high street back to its glory days.
Fay Easton, regional champion for pop-up shop support body Enterprise Nation, who is part of Team Wellington, said: "If you look at the shops in the town that have been empty for years, some of them are £20,000 for rent or £25,000 for business rates.
"A business would have to make a profit of £1,000 a week before they make anything for themselves. If you can tell me something that'll make that much a week in Wellington right now, I'd be very surprised. If we can get through to property owners it's much better.
"We can say we know a few businesses that have started at home or in a pop-up, they've got a good track record and we're thinking of putting them with complimentary businesses so they can share a premises. The owner will have to do a little more legal work, because he's letting it to three people, but it means he's not going to have a shop empty for years.
"But just like any town we've got a percentage of properties where the owners are overseas or they're pension plans, and you can't talk to a pension plan.
"I can understand from a balance sheet point of view why they don't drop their rent. We're not saying they're evil capitalists, we're saying we have to find a way around it."
Ms Easton said the anti-social behaviour was a problem without an easy solution for Team Wellington because it people acted badly in the area because there was nothing open at night.
But she added nothing was open at night because nobody wanted to risk it when people acted badly.
"There's a saying in town centre terminology that is 'crime and grime', and we suffer from that," she said.
"When we have success, businesses will get cleaned up, but we don't have that success. We have anti-social behaviour and it's a sign of a poor economy.
"If you have a busy street full of great restaurants, crime goes down."
