All around Hartlepool there are small parades of shops. In many of these areas there are empty and vacant shops which bring down the visual appeal of the area, reduce the footfall and number of shoppers visiting the area and act as a magnet for trouble and anti-social behaviour. An empty shop is definitely bad news for all the other shops.
So when someone comes along asking to renovate an empty unit and bring it back into use you would have thought it would be welcomed. Not at Catcote Road Shops. According to some Councillors there is too much traffic already in the area and anyway the shop would cause litter.
It doesn't matter what type of shop that opened it would cause more traffic, surely that is the idea, we want these small local shopping parades in use. As regards litter then the parallel that comes to mind is with dog fouling. You can't blame the dog, its the irresponsible owner that leaves the mess behind. Similarly you can't blame the shop owner when an irresponsible member of the public throws litter on the street.
However, Hartlepool Planing committee don't see it like that. Application REFUSED. If we are going to do this then why don't we just knock the shops down. Simple solution, if there are no shops then there would be no litter and no traffic or parking problems!
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