On Tuesday 27th May Fleur Anderson hosted a public meeting in St Marys Church which she had asked Nicola Grant, Executive Director of Positively Putney BID to speak at.
The meeting had sold out quickly with 100 people signing up to attend. On the evening about 60 people were in attendance. The panel consisted of Fleur Anderson, Councillor Kemi Akinola, Deputy Leader, Councillor Jenny Yates, Cabinet Member for Transport, Acting Inspector Stephen Burke and Nicola Grant.
In advance of the meeting those signed up had been asked what information they wanted out of the meeting and this was shared with the panel so responses could be specific.
Fleur opened the meeting with the welcome news that the need for action on Hammersmith Bridge has been agreed by the Department for Transport and we await the outcome of the spending review on 11th June. If the Bridge works are part of the spending review then it means one step closer to the bridge opening again. Let’s hope Government appreciate how important opening Hammersmith Bridge is for moving traffic around London which will aid traffic congestion in Putney town centre.
Nicola was next on the agenda and spoke to an engaged audience, outlining what and how a Business Improvement becomes about before talking more specifically about Positively Putney BID. Positively Putney is a not for profit organisation, representing 400 businesses across Putney town centre who all pay a mandatory levy based on their rateable value, providing a total budget of about £320k a year. Nicola summarised the three main themes for the BID: Promote Putney, Enhance Putney and Supporting Businesses. Starting with Promote; encouraging and reminding people to visit, and spend more time and money in Putney through the town centre website, co-ordinated marketing themed campaigns, social media and free public events – all designed to get people to explore Putney such as the Ice Sculpture trail and Halloween event. Enhance Putney is about making Putney looks its best and often things people think the council fund such as pressure washing the pavements, funding and maintaining planters, hanging baskets and festive lights, vinyls on vacant units, co-ordinating and managing pubwatch meetings, co-ordinating and supporting street angels and for the last 18 months have funded undercover security as shoplifting became such a big issue for our businesses. Finally, supporting businesses which covers a whole host of services to make it easier for a business to run, may involve liaison with council when businesses are not sure of who to contact, advice and training on a range of topics, sharing of resources, networking opportunities, Prefer Putney employee loyalty scheme, footfall and data insights, and trade waste partnerships. Positively Putney are the voice for businesses.
To answer some of the key issues the audience wanted addressing Nicola provided a quick summary of how High streets and shopping habits have changed in the twenty years she has been working in the industry. The rate of decline for retail was accelerating even before the pandemic as more people began to buy online. Internet sales peaked at 37.8% in 2021 during the second full lockdown, and now averaged out at about 30%, an estimated £127 billion in 2024. In logical terms retail stores need reducing by 30% – in fact physical retail businesses are having to combine with an online offering to continue to survive. British High Streets have changed from a place to buy things to a place to do stuff – people don’t want to shop like they used to but instead want to get their nails done, and meet people for a coffee or a cocktail. This has an impact on which businesses will survive and thrive.
The government relaxed planning laws in late 2021 introducing a new planning class E which combined previous classes of A1, A2 and A3 making it much easier to swap between shops, offices, cafes, restaurants, surgeries, gyms, other health and leisure etc. as they are all now in the same use class. This has had a big impact on the number of hospitality businesses on Putney High Street – as previously it was defined in the Wandsworth Local Plan as a protected retail street and had a cap on the A3 class of 30%.
Putney High Street has fragmented ownership, it is not like a shopping centre who can curate their offering. It is difficult to influence landlord decisions as they generally go for a business that offers them the most money and has a strong covenant behind them. Over the last two years Positively Putney have worked with landlords to understand why they are leaving their units vacant, and how we can influence their tenant choices. We have analysed where we have gaps and actively reaching out to businesses and putting them in touch with landlords with vacant units. as a timeseries of vacancies over the last decade, it was lowest at 6% vacant rate in Dec 2016, rising to 16% in Dec 23, and sitting at 11.5% in December 2024. The UK average is currently 10%, Wandsworth Borough is 9% so still some way to go.
We do have some exciting openings to look forward to:
The large unit on Putney Bridge Road which was Trinity Hospice furniture shop has recently opened as Creature Comforts, a subscription vet service.
Marks & Spencer have started renovating their old unit, and the scaffolding is going whilst we sit in this meeting with anticipated opening date of between Christmas and March.
Old Robert Dyas, and units on PBR were bought in December for £10 million and the landlord is revising the previous planning permission and we suspect will be a combination of commercial on ground floor with residential above.
Wahoo is on the market for sale, has had lots of interest, one buyer recently fallen through. Sadly does have squatters at the moment but will hopefully soon return to commercial use after over a decade of being empty.
Bill’s on Putney High Street are reassigning their lease to another restaurant operator.
Halifax and Lloyds remain on the market Banks and as the landlords have received good rent from banks they seem reluctant to lower those expectations. Tiny Feet, a babies equipment shop is opening in the old Barclays bank in late June.
Putney Exchange have some strong interest from national retailers in the ex-Wilko site which would bring good footfall to Putney.
The Mastercard spend index shows Putney has high spend capacity significantly higher than Wandsworth, Wimbledon and Chiswick, and similar to Richmond and Fulham. However, to have a successful business need to make profit and rental levels are still high especially on Putney High Street, they are generally lower on Upper Richmond Road and Lower Richmond Road hence they have no vacancies.
Nicola reminded the audience that people should talk positively about the area, and not to under estimate the power of their own voice and the effects it has. In a recent survey by the organisation Find Out Now, an instant polling service with 54,000 respondents results showed that when people see negative news about their high street, only 35% want to visit. When the news is positive that jumps to 85%. That trade would make a massive difference to both small independents and large nationals. People talking down the area gives the perception it is failing rather than a great opportunity for investment.
Councillor Yates spoke next, explaining the Council role of maintaining and improving the roads and infrastructure. They are spending £10.25 million used this year for road and pavement renewal across the borough of Wandsworth. Air quality is improving with Nitrogen dioxide level and Pm particulates gone down. She then talked about the works on Putney High Street and Lower Richmond Road and design aim was to make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists and done in collaboration with TFL. They have installed a ‘scoot system’ which has sensors in the road to optimise traffic flow. They said they appreciate it has caused traffic and they are making alterations on Lower Richmond Road to improve flow.
Councillor Yates highlighted how popular E-bikes and e-scooters are with 600,000 e- bike journeys recorded in April in Wandsworth. They have installed 170 e-bike bays to tackle parking issues and more initiatives to come. Lime bikes now has 28 staff working in Wandsworth to move bikes around. She advised to take a picture of the QR code of the bike of any badly parked and send to lime. How to report illegally parked vehicles – Help Centre
Inspector Steve Burke from the Metropolitan Police spoke about a new operation focusing on tackling shoplifting across Wandsworth, especially those offenders repeatedly stealing high volume low to medium value goods. He also mentioned (CBO) – Criminal behaviour orders are a way to deter repeated offence and the Police have a few in place for prolific offenders within Putney.
He discussed the recent problem with youths causing anti social behaviour on Putney High Street during the early evenings. He said he is working with the parents and schools. He mentioned he was aware of the recent incident on Putney Common and would look into the matter further and the way the family had been dealt with.
The meeting then opened up to questions – a man at the back spoke about his frustration with the traffic and asked why noone from TFl was in attendance and also stated that noone would want to come to Putney, a lady asked about how beauty businesses were checked they were trading correctly, a young man at the front said that he needed help stopping people riding e-bikes on pedestrian only areas and Graham Morrow said footfall for independents had reduced significantly recently and people needed to use it or lose it, he was also critical of the lack of Police he sees in Putney. Fleur closed the meeting thanking everyone for coming, and encouraging people to support local businesses. There was not enough time for questions and people left frustrated. Wandsworth Council did hear the strength of feeling regarding the traffic which should encourage them to look again at the works, and look for some solutions. Positively Putney BID will always advocate for the businesses work in poartnership alongside Fleur Anderson and Wandsworth Council to get the best outcomes for Putney town centre.
