Support needed for High Street Shopping

This year, there have been ongoing efforts to support the businesses on the main shopping streets in the West End through a campaign to encourage local shopping. The West End values the rich mix of local shops and we want to enhance the area's diversity of local retailers. This relies on people making the decision to go out and shop on the high street not online, and for the encouragement of partnerships between communities, businesses and local authorities to bring about local investment. Key aspects of promoting the High Street are supportive planning and digital initiatives by Glasgow City Council.

In the last six months, there has been a local campaign, "Say No To Tesco",which aims to strengthen policies to halt the expansion of supermarkets in the main shopping streets. This has gathered supporters from communities across Scotland who want to protect the unique local character of their high streets. There has been wide agreement on the need for action and optimism that changes to halt the expansion of supermarkets can foster a renewed sense of community and enterprise.

On 10th December, I joined campaigners for restrictions on the growth of supermarkets outside the new supermarket at 349 Great Western Road. There will be monitoring of the impact of this new store, for example on local retailers or traffic. A new supermarket is likely to encourage the consumption of unhealthy foods, such as heavily processed ready meals high in salt and sugar content.

In the year ahead, I hope that the campaigning to restrict the growth of supermarkets develops momentum and more people try to avoid using supermarkets for their weekly shopping. In the West End, it is still possible to choose from a range of independent grocers and go along to the farmers market in Partick.

Useful link:

Tescopoly Unhealthy Food - http://www.tescopoly.org/unhealthy-food