A frugal life is an easy life!

A sunny day, I fancy a day out visiting a town/city in Lancashire.

Every other month my choice involves a trip to Preston.

Usually a Tuesday or Thursday, as they have a huge range of stalls selling everything from tat, to bargains on their outdoor flea market.

Then it's a look around the indoor market, then the high street shops and back home for tea.
The shops are shops in Preston, not spend a full day in bloggs super-mega store.
Preston shops are a decent size.

I spoke to some Preston market traders yesterday while I wondered around, looked at the proposed plans to redevelop the indoor and outdoor markets.
First they are repainting the outdoor market roof, said to be "to a victorian colour scheme" - sadly, in reality, this means battleship grey.

Next they will be enclosing the outdoor market place and moving the current indoor market over to it, then redeveloping the former indoor market space to include restaurants and a picture house.

Sounds ok so far?

Preston council, I'm told wanted to close down the flea markets held in the outdoor market area.
This was strongly opposed.
So now Preston council proposed this new development, a compromise?

As the market traders put it so well, not only will it reduce the numbers of people visiting the area, it will in effect reduce the flea market size by almost three quarters. Combined with increased charges for pitching a stall, it will effectively wipe out the existance of the flea market.
When the inside market moves over, there will be little or no room to accomodate the flea market.

Preston people expressed their will, it was listened to, then the council found a way to do it gradually regardless. Nice work Preston council.

From a personal point of view, this is how Preston council's policy will affect us.

I can go to towns/cities around Lancashire and see almost exactly the same things.
The same superstore outlets, the same huge over charging cinema, the same over priced food/coffee outlet chains, you get the picture.

When Preston goes the same way as the other town centres around Lancashire, our family visits there will drop from 6 or 7 days there, to one, if you're lucky!

We don't want to visit the same over-priced outlets, we want something different.
A point of difference attracts people into the area, making it the same as everywhere else, will only detract people from visiting.

There's little to no value in a town centre that's the same as all the others.
You can't get a pair of jeans for a tenner in an upmarket, revamped town centre (at what cost to taxpayers?)

At present, a day in Preston offers something for EVERYBODY!
We meet up with the old man there, we pay for parking, we eat two meals out, we pick up bargains from both the markets, we shop in the regular high street shops, we browse, grab a cup of coffee, it's fun, it's different.
The markets play an essential role in our family choosing to visit Preston.

Take the markets away, force up prices, there's nothing in Preston for us. There's no more reason to visit Preston than there is to visit anywhere else.

We don't go for meals out, we cannot afford it.
We don't shop every week on the high street, we cannot afford it.
I cannot remember the last time we went to the pictures to watch a film, we simply cannot afford it.

In Preston yesterday, we met up with the old man and brought along the sister from the North East, combined we spent the best part of £400 on food from independant cafes, the flea market, the indoor market, for parking, coffees from independant coffee shops and a few quid in regular sized high street shops.

Take away your point of difference - Preston markets - then we will not be visiting/meeting up for the day there anymore.
It may not seem a huge sum of money to your developers, but over time, it's less money in Preston's businesses pockets and more in somewhere elses.