Press Releases for 2004

FAIR TRADE AND MORE DIVERSITY GREEN CANDIDATE CALLS FOR A MORE VARIED CITY CENTRE

9th September 2004

Green candidate for Barton Ward, Keith Bothwell, supports recent City efforts to increase Fair Trade sales in Canterbury. He is concerned that the massive retail expansion of Canterbury over the past 20 years has reduced choices rather than increased them. The loss of diversity of local shops needs to be resisted by consumers and the Council alike. Keith comments:

"Fair trade is one route to providing a City Centre which reflects our concerns about fairness and justice in trade. The Green Party hopes to see both small and large businesses offering fair trade goods in future. But the major problem in Canterbury is the decline of diversity. The loss of greengrocers, butchers and shops offering repairs has been a significant loss in central Canterbury over the last twenty years. There were more independent bookshops, newsagents and independent clothes businesses in the past. Whilst we can all see some good businesses have been retained, like Canterbury Wholefoods and the varied enterprises in the Indoor Market, additions to diversity such as the excellent Goods Shed are few in number.

"The City Council needs to look much more critically at planning applications to try to reduce the numbers of fast foods, restaurants, chain stores and money shops. This would not only provide space for more diversity, but help some existing businesses survive by reducing the scale of the competition. Our City has lost retail diversity it once possessed, partly due to planning errors and also due to very high rents which small enterprises find difficult to cope with. If elected, I would campaign to encourage planning for a more diverse City centre, to meet peoples' needs and aspirations better than the limited choices on offer do at present." ENDS c299 words

FURTHER INFORMATION: Keith Bothwell, on 01227 780477. Contact address for this release as above. Keith has served on the Canterbury Conservation Area Advisory Committee which examines planning applications for a substantial part of central Canterbury.

Site design and
management by

providers of

designed for

using

Computers

and VALID

Updated by
Philip
27th March 2005