Its time to rethink the High Street

 After years of championing the cause of the High Street, Ive had to admit it's now time for a major change, particularly in Whitehaven. I believe that Councils now have powers to restrict certain types of shops from opening and may even be able to reverse planning decisions of the past and with that in mind, we badly need a review of the existing stock and some of the occupied stock.

King Street was once the jewel in the crown for Whitehaven and was even dubbed the golden mile, but these days it's a sad almost derelict street with one or two gems here and there. Lowther Street is in danger of heading the same way and if it's allowed to go down that route, the two most notable shopping streets in the town will be lost for a generation or more.

I appreciate that people may be using barbers a bit more than in my heyday of hair but how did the town go from one barber shop (Davids) on Church Street to the dozen or more we have now? Can they all be genuine businesses?

On top of this, a shop was allowed to open on Lowther Street with garish outdoor lighting and signage that wouldn't look out of place in Benidorm but it does look right out of place on Lowther Street and yet where's the enforcement. We had to get approval for the type of lettering allowed on a traditional sign and yet that shop can get away with signage that a Dutch sex shop would be proud of. 

Few of these new types of business want to take part in the community either which just makes large parts of the town feel hollowed out.

It's time for a review of all the shop units, at least on Lowther and King Streets. I dont know if its possible, but Id like to see several permissions refused retrospectively and the businesses moved on and id also like to see the potential uses for the existing empty stock clearly defined. If needs be, some of them even on King Street may need redefined as only suitable for residential use, especially the ones that have stood empty since the financial crash.

Office use, cafes, bars and residential need to be the order of the day but also a special restriction on retail to ensure that units are only filled with the type of shop the town needs. Its a time for brave decisions but if we continue to allow the free for all that currently exists, several more units will be occupied. but by the type of businesses that suck the community out of the town and we dont need that.

Ideally we need to ensure that no more barber shops, nail bars, mini marts or vape shops are allowed to open in the heart of the town and that is going to take a determined effort by planners but if we dont act soon, the rot is going to set in and it is a rot. Once the balance of units are filled with these types of business, it's going to make it so much harder to persuade shoppers to visit. 

Whitehaven is on the up in so many ways and the arrival of Levels, the Edge and the revamping of the Rum Story are brilliant for the town as are the new bars and restaurants currently being developed, so I would urge the planners to support these upgrades to the town with some hard hitting decisions on the retail units and to do so soon.

We are now into our 30th year in Whitehaven and the changes weve seen in that time are heartbreaking to be honest, but there is a chance now, a window of opportunity if you like, to protect what we have and enhance the town for the next generation, but its going to need positive action from the County Council, supported by the right noises from the parish council but at present all I hear is the sound of silence!

www.richardsonsofwhitehaven.co.uk

Statistics my arse!

Have you noticed that the word runs on statistics? Every statement is qualified by some stat or other whether its to do with politics, sport health or virtually anything you can imagine. I get it that statistics can help give some clarity in certain areas of life, but I do wish they would apply more caution when it comes to health.

In 2022, my wife and I left the Carlisle Cancer centre with the knowledge that I would likely be dead in 12 months because thats what the stats said. Those words defined the next 6 months for us until two things happened. The first was that I had a cracking scan result showing that the medication Id been put on had reduced the tumour load significantly, and the second was the realisation that I just didn't feel like a person with only months left on the clock.

Unfortunately for a web junkie like myself, cancer stats cover everything and even if you beat one, it still leaves the trail of stress in its wake. One stat said that the average number of overnight admissions prior to death for a cancer patient with metastatic renal cancer was 3. 

I guess that means I must be dead following my last admission in November just gone, however as I entered January, another stat loomed and it's really scary. According to all the major health sites including the NHS, I have a 10% chance of getting to next January but while Ive had a bit of a rough time lately, I really dont feel like a chap with 11 months to go. Ive acquired more tablets to add to my daily regime and a rather distinguished walking stick and in the last week a water retention issue left me looking like Humpty Dumpty according to my empathetic business partner Louise; but 11 moths to go? I think not. This wee wine merchant is already planning the next Christmas drive in the shop and it doesn't include plans for a send off in a box on the 31st!

I've come to the conclusion that medical stats are best read and consumed by medical professionals and in an ideal world, their details would be heavily restricted. This to me is one of the downsides to the open information world we now live in since the internet was born. Dr Google as Ive often heard medics refer to health searches in the web is an addiction for anyone with a serious diagnosis and whichever way you look at it, according to the web, Im buggered.

So whats the point of this ramble I hear you say? Well, if you are just starting this awful and scary journey read your body, not your browser. Yeah, I know, it's easier said than done, especially when dealing with 5 and 10 year statistics but one thing I have learned about Cancer is that you cannot predict the bugger.

Everyones body reacts differently to tumours, to medication, to surgery and above all to stress of which this journey is full. Medical statistics are meant to be read in context as highly generalist numbers which may be useful to drug companies and to hospitals for long term bed planning. They definitely aren't details that you should be linking to your google calendar!

Anyway, after a year where the tumour in my stomach took to bleeding on a regular basis, causing me to learn a lot more about the blood transfusion service than I ever wanted to know and where the main tumour nearly did kill me with a bad secondary infection, Im still here and Dr Google can sod off.