Traffic must flow along the Parade

The pedestrianisation of the Parade has always been a controversial issue since the subject was first mooted in the mid 1960s. One thing is clear, however: history has shown that when the Parade is closed to traffic, as was the case in 1971 and more recently when the footpaths on either side of the Parade were widened, the public were deterred from shopping in the Parade and trade suffered.

Yet inspite of the lessons of history, the northern part of the Parade, where shop rents are highest, is blocked to traffic for nearly three months of the year from October 1 each year for the Christmas market when trade for retailers should be at its peak.

The Christmas market not only competes with business rate and rent paying shops but detracts from the image the town needs to project to attract shoppers. The market certainly is not ‘a fashionable experience,’ to coin the phrase one town centre manager used to label the town with. It negates the quality and diversity of the retailing in Leamington within the context of the town’s regency elegance.

The town needs to learn from the success of the recent Food and Drink Festival when footfall increased markedly along the Parade. The festival did not complete with the town’s traders: it complemented them. Some traders had stalls there and those who did not were able to advertise their services by making special offers in a voucher book that was widely distributed. It was short enough to leave visitors wanting more. They did not tire of it.

What the town needs is a Shopping Festival of Christmas in December only centred on the Pump Room Gardens, which should have at its centre a Czech Christmas Market to revive Leamington’s links with the Czech Republic and to differentiate it from Birmingham’s German market. Leamington’s traders should also be invited to man stalls and a voucher book made available for all the town’s traders to advertise their wares in and make promotional offers.

The Parade should definitely not be blocked to traffic during the Christmas period. - Richard Lemberger, past chairman, Royal Leamington Spa Chamber of Trade, 1993 and 1994.