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Recession has 'ripped out Accrington's heart'

6:30pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in


THE recession has ‘ripped the heart out of Accrington town centre’, according to council bosses.

Today it was announced that nine staff at Accrington’s Ethel Austin store would lose their jobs as administrators said the shop would close within weeks.

It is the latest blow for the town centre which has more than 10 empty units and many more than that are up to be let.

Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said the closure showed how the recession had left Accrington ‘mauled’.

He said: “As I go through the Arndale Centre now I feel so sad.

"This news just adds to the economic disaster in Hyndburn.

"It is dreadful news for the staff and also for the town.

"We have been badly mauled by this recession.”

Arndale Centre owners Protego Real Estate said the 'tide was turning' with lease holders found for three empty units at the centre.

But in the meantime, empty units at the centre are highly visible with the closures of stores such as Price Less Shoes, Stationery Box, Hampsons, Cryers Sound and Vision, Mark One, Rayman Gifts and the Officers Club.

Children’s wear store Adams, which closed earlier in the year, is also still empty.

Ethel Austin is one of the key tenants in the Arndale Centre and has been based in the town for decades.

Today staff were told that the shop will close in around two weeks.

One worker, a single mum, said all staff were in shock.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It is terrible news.

"We genuinely thought the store had a future.

"We’ve got a big delivery which is due to arrive on Friday so we thought we were doing ok.

“When we go there are going to be real problems for Accrington.

"If many more shops go there won’t even be a shopping centre any more.

“There are lots of empty shops in the town and we are one of the biggest.”

Comments(21)

burner says...
6:49pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Interesting. It's the folk who control parking and traffic layout who have ripped out Blackburn's heart.

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chrislancs says...
6:49pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Tragedy all round. both labour and tories will do nothing to help accrington, sadly it is becoming a forgotten town. labour has deserted its heartlands and the tories are paying lip service by hoping to get elected on labours unpopularity. They have not even got a local candidate.
Accrington needs someone to fight its corner and keep it in the sights of developers and employers. nobody seems to pointing out the geat positives we have in Hyndburn as a whole. If we talk the town down then it will go down.
Its time to promote accrington and Hyndburn where it counts. As a local English Democrat I have seen what can be achieved with positive approach. Look at the mayor of Doncaster to see what he has achieved with a new look and different attitude. If you want this in Hyndburn then the English Democrats are the party to deliver.
Chris Reid PPC
English Democrats
Hyndburn/Haslingden

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Janet Dodd says...
6:54pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Doncaster PAH! Home of excellent Safeguarding services for children

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workaholic says...
7:40pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Chris Reid - stick to commenting on the story we don't want your political views shoved down our necks!

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Akki says...
8:43pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Put those violins away, Accy aint that bad, granted we have a few pound shops too many but as long as we still have Burtons and M&S theres still hope.

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blylad says...
9:17pm Thu 18 Mar 10

I hope something decent opens instead of Ethel Austin- such a bad store- everything is tacky and not well made glad Burnley's never had one.

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level says...
9:18pm Thu 18 Mar 10

It seems like Mr Britcliffe always has to blame somebody/thing for the way Accrington is. He needs to look at himself, he is 'OUR COUNCIL LEADER?' - I am sick and tired of his negativity and constant whinging. Thank goodness he aint standing as the tory candidate, me thinking he knows his time is up. Even the Accy Observer is finding it hard to make him look half decent. Why doesn't he give us all a break and offer to stand as a tory candidate down south where they will be oblivious to his track record. Good bye Mr Britcliffe do our town a favour and move aside for those with some vision and optimism.

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GrahamJ says...
9:41pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Mr Britcliffe's previous stance was 'due to a Conservative Council, Hyndburn is better prepared for the recession'.

Seems we were not better prepared and Mr Britcliffe is admitting that his policies did not protect Accrington after all.

There was a lot that could have been done to keep Accrington thriving. That opportunity has been ignored.

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Lovelancs says...
10:13pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Akki wrote:
Put those violins away, Accy aint that bad, granted we have a few pound shops too many but as long as we still have Burtons and M&S theres still hope.
Well said...it`s NOT that bad.

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jaffa90 says...
10:21pm Thu 18 Mar 10

We like Accrington for shopping and the markets,whoever designed that disabled parking with all them stainless steel posts should have been shot.

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The Mekon says...
11:15pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Its really hard to say whats right for accrington. Previous industries used to employ THOUSANDS of people, GEC Platts allspeeds, Rists, what do people do these days, I for one have no idea. Service industry, is that a big deal? Political parties come and go, but at the end of the day its what we can provide to the world in trade.

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anotherview says...
11:39pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Spot on The Mekon, When there is plenty of decently paid employment, and folks have cash to spend, the shops will thrive; so long as there is plenty of free parking to allow customers to move the shopping home. No dosh no shops. No parking...... shop elsewhere.
The council should do all it can to encourage INDUSTRY to Accrington. And as industry creates the wealth, the shopping malls will follow, funded by private money, not taxpayers.

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pocketdragon says...
11:46pm Thu 18 Mar 10

tell me about it, last time i went i couldnt even find a decent chip shop...not a clean one anyways!

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dingle-berry says...
11:55pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Accrington and clitheroe seem to be going in the same direction!!(downhill
) both town centres are in decline
And to the people calling it a maket town, pfft a skipton it will never be!!!

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boycott says...
11:58pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Accy has been a walking joke for decades. Its gone down the swan..Nobody in their right mind would go shopping there let alone live there given the choice in my opinion....and not being a motorbike enthusiast Clarke's demise was just the last nail in the coffin.

'The Mekon' has it right, there are just no jobs there anymore, and nobody wants to invest in Accy. I wager the main employer in Accy right now is probably the public sector, so i'm afraid the situation is going to get a lot worse in the next few years

What could Britcliffe have done? Nothing is my answer, other than remain in the job for himself or he could have come out and explained the reality of Accrington in 2010.

What's the answer then? I havn't got a clue other than we need massive change..

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Centaur says...
6:49am Fri 19 Mar 10

I note that Chris Read tries his political broadcast at every oportunity. He should get off his backside and do something more than talking and writing. No more please Chris!
Accy has been going down the tubes since they got rid of the sunken gardens on Broadway. ALL councillors don't have the common sense to do long-term planning. Their only interests are what they can get until the next election, and the old market, the new market and the bus (socalled..joke) station give explicit examples of lack of common sense.
The planning department are nothing more than a core of neo-marxists and politically correct drongoes! Get rid of them all and start again.

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Kevin, Colne says...
6:53am Fri 19 Mar 10

The Mekon is right, although to be fair we still have some manufacturing but it tends to be highly specialist, and more to the point it is not undertaken in a way that provides mass employment. Much of Mekon's comments about the loss of big manufacturing employers in Accrington applies to Burnley also.

Boycott is bang on the mark too. There must be many northern towns where the public sector is the largest employer by far, and as we know the public sector is cutting back too.

During the days of a credit-induced boom some town centres continue to thrive alongside out-of-town retail parks. Those days are long gone.

What we have now is inflation at 3.5% while those in work are getting an average pay rise of 1.9%. A significant number of people have no work at all. That leaves a gap and the only way that households can fill it is to retrench - in other words to cut back. For an awful lot of people living standards are now falling.

What can local politicians do? Not much, really.

I believe that we have consumed our way into recession and I'm really struggling to grasp how we can consume our way out of it.

I cannot help but think that we're facing something that is politically, economically and socially very serious yet there is an absence of meaningful debate among the ruling political class. In the words of a famous song they seem content to be 'whistling a happy tune so that no one will ever know I'm afraid'.

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Tim O'Kane says...
12:05pm Fri 19 Mar 10

Bad news folks ! There must be TWO Peter Britcliffes. Why ? because the other Peter Britcliffe in his election literature last year was telling everyone in Oswaldtwistle how well Hyndburn was coping under Tory local policy. I wonder which Peter Britcliffe will be on the doorstep in a few weeks trying to get misguided Gobbiners to vote for him.

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ossy says...
12:27pm Fri 19 Mar 10

level wrote:
It seems like Mr Britcliffe always has to blame somebody/thing for the way Accrington is. He needs to look at himself, he is 'OUR COUNCIL LEADER?' - I am sick and tired of his negativity and constant whinging. Thank goodness he aint standing as the tory candidate, me thinking he knows his time is up. Even the Accy Observer is finding it hard to make him look half decent. Why doesn't he give us all a break and offer to stand as a tory candidate down south where they will be oblivious to his track record. Good bye Mr Britcliffe do our town a favour and move aside for those with some vision and optimism.
I fully agree, Peter has done nothing for Accrington or his home town of Oswaldtwistle. Its time to retire from politics Peter.

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Gaius Grossus says...
1:55pm Fri 19 Mar 10

To boycott Stockport, which I do by the way, where I live I can see hills and valleys and woods. Where in Stockport can you do that? Just because you live on the coat tails of Manchester don't call us. Accrington isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than many.

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disgusted tunbridge wells says...
2:44pm Sat 20 Mar 10

Accrington is having problems but so is everywhere, it's biggest asset is its people and what they need are real jobs

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