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Is Bovey Tracey too shabby and run down to attract visitors?

Mon 9 Sep 2013



By Tony Allen, Town Councillor & Leader of the Bovey NHW Forum

BOVEY TRACEY: “A LOVELY PLACE TO LIVE”

How many times have you heard people say this, both residents and visitors? Estate agents make a great meal out of it of course. None of us doubt its position close to the moors, the coast and the rolling green countryside make the location much preferable to city or inner urban life for many. There is an excellent primary school, a fantastic number of activities and sports for young people to get involved in, and an amazing number of voluntary organisations supporting the elderly. Let’s remind ourselves that we have banks, post offices, doctors and dentists surgeries, hospital, vets, butchers, a baker, delicatessen, green grocers, florist, hardware store, two minimarkets, chemists, legal and accountancy firms, public library, hairdressers, several churches and meeting places, hotels, restaurants, tea rooms, take-away food outlets, pubs, and much more, right on our doorsteps. So yes, we are indeed fortunate to have all of this here in Bovey Tracey! But is all as well as it seems?

BOVEY BUSINESSES IN DECLINE

You will probably have noticed a number of businesses have closed down in Bovey Tracey over recent weeks, some after trading here for many years. A number of others have come very close to joining them. Following the earlier closures of HSBC bank, the King of Prussia pub, Threshers off-licence, the newsagent in Station Road, and a number of gift and souvenir shops, the overall effect is that it looks like the town is in a steady state of decline. This is endorsed by a well known and long established trader in the centre of town saying how dismayed they are with the drop in footfall and their concerns with how to address this. Another long standing business that I’ve written about in a previous edition of this magazine told me then that a majority of Bovey Tracey residents had never been in his shop. No doubt there are people who will say they know what the problem is and what should be done to put things right. Of course there are issues about lack of on-street parking, car park charges and the traffic flows in the town, but these are not the only causes of concern.

GROWING POPULATION

Bovey Tracey has changed considerably since the mid 1900s from a rural village of 2,500 or so residents to a still growing town of 7,500, with much more potential residential development still in the pipeline (next up Bradley Bends and possibly Indio). The narrow main street still threads its way up through the town, with little space for the vast increase in vehicles using it, and in addition the building of the by-pass and the Le Molay-Littry Way have taken much traffic away from the town centre altogether. These facts are not inconsequential, and form part of the reasons we have the problems some perceive today.

DORMITORY TOWN

In olden times, many Bovonians worked in and close to the village, and the shops in it at the time reflected that (the late Liz Westwood’s excellent book and photographic record “Bovey Tracey Rediscovered” shows this very well) but nowadays many of our residents work elsewhere than in Bovey, and feel they haven’t the time or inclination to shop here in town. The growth of on-line shopping, and stopping off at supermarkets (including Trago Mills) on the way home from work (and at weekends) in the larger neighbouring urban centres in Exeter, Torquay, Newton Abbot and Plymouth, give rise to “one stop shopping” from their desktop or their car. This is a hard fact of life, and we are living with the consequences of it.

TOWN IDENTITY

When trying to establish an identity for our market town with its 750 years old charter, and historical links to the English Civil War and the pottery industry, we can ask what its unique selling points are for businesses, residents and visitors alike. Previous studies have identified its credentials as one of the key “Gateways to the Moor” and a major arts and craft centre. The well publicised success of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and the Bovey Tracey Craft Festival show the town’s strengths in this latter area, added to by the likes of the House of Marbles, Spin-a-Yarn and Serendipity (welcome back!) for example. I personally feel not enough is made of our position as a potential travel hub for Dartmoor. Organised trips and outings starting and ending in or calling at Bovey Tracey, with time to visit our shops and watering holes, should be a natural surely, as many similar places would be in popular foreign tourist areas. Somehow these assets need to be built upon to make Bovey Tracey somewhere visitors want to come to and hopefully spend their hard earned money in.

ATTRACTIVENESS

On the down side, some feel that the town centre looks shabby and run down. A chaotic town square, untidy pavements, too much street signage, and the approaches by road (including the ruin of the Old Thatched Inn) don’t help at all. The town doesn’t appear to visitors to be “joined up”. By this I mean Station Road, lower Fore Street and upper Fore Street, have little that draws visitors from one to the other. Narrow footpaths and scruffy shop fronts certainly don’t do it. Unattractiveness should not be underestimated as a deterrent to wanting to visit!

SAME PROBLEMS ELSEWHERE

Places like Totnes, Ashburton and Newton Abbot have had to address similar problems over recent times, and all have had some measures of success. Teignmouth, Dawlish and Paignton are other places having similar issues identified which they are responding to. So Bovey is not alone in this, and perhaps we can learn from what others have done. I’ve been particularly impressed with the efforts of the Somerset Towns Forum which was set up precisely to address the question of revitalisation in their communities. Hopefully we can learn from what they have done and are doing, as we can from the very public campaign by Mary Portas to look at shopping areas in decline. And in this economic climate, I say “well done” to those who’ve recently taken on a closed business (Pizza take-away) or vacant premises in the town (art gallery and second hand bookshop).

TOWN REGENERATION COMMITTEE

In July, as a result of the above concerns, Bovey Tracey Town Council took the initiative to form a working party together with the Bovey Tracey Business Association and the Information Centre to look in more depth, with the various businesses and others with interests in the future wellbeing and prosperity of Bovey Tracey, at what needs to change to halt this perceived decline, and what initiatives and better marketing are needed to help revitalise the town. But at the end of the day, all stakeholders (businesses, public authorities, and residents) will have to accept some responsibility in helping make Bovey Tracey a thriving place for us who live here and visitors alike. Bovey has many competitors out there, so “no change” is not an acceptable response, and I hope you will be supporting this initiative.

To read more of Tony's columns, click here.



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