A Blessing in Disguise

For anyone who has never gone to the lengths of visiting Addlestone, the following seven-minute video will provide you with a good insight into the town's spirit, ambience and culture. Residents alike can enjoy the video to observe their hometown from a different perspective, through the medium of a glossy motion picture:

Indeed; the current situation is a bit grim.

The video opens by introducing Addlestone as one of Runnymede's key town centres. In what way that's true I can't even begin to fathom, but if it is then I suspect it has something to do with the mammoth TESCO Extra that's so important to the town's local economy, or so the video claims. In that case the narrator might as well have bypassed the notion of Addlestone altogether and made sole reference to the superstore, which supposedly keeps the town chugging along nicely.

She admits, however, that TESCO has made it "difficult for smaller independent shops to survive, leading to a lack of competition within the town". In other words, TESCO is raking it in, but Addlestone's home-grown businesses along the high street (or what's left of it) are suffering, largely as a result of the former's success. Well, who could have seen that coming? Apart from takeaway outlets of course. No; that's one industry that continues to thrive in Addlestone.

Despite being one of Runnymede's key town centres, it's claimed in the same breath that not many have heard of Addlestone (an odd state of affairs for a key town centre) and yet it hasn't had the best reputation (quite an achievement for a town not many have heard of). So in summary, Addlestone is an essential, although little-known, yet unpopular place. With this paradoxical message in mind, let's have a look at what the video was actually for...

The video was created by Runnymede Borough Council and put forward for the Portas Pilot Scheme. The Portas Pilot Scheme comes after Mary Portas (a.k.a Mary Queen of Shops) was called upon by the government to make an assessment of British towns in December 2011 to find a way to revive the country's most struggling high streets.

Since the scheme was announced, councils up and down the country, including Addlestone's very own, have been bidding like crazy with the aim of securing the prize of £100,000, available for twelve successful towns to go towards local projects. Of course being "successful" in this case means being the most impressive failure. 

In order for a town to show itself worthy of such charity, its council would have to submit a video like the one above in which various people would beg for help in between shots of empty, dilapidated buildings before rounding it off in an optimistic tone. They would need to explain the town's troubles and how the money would be invested. 

In Addlestone's bid, some valid points were put forward to highlight the town's great potential. It's close to London. It's close to junction 11 of the M25 (although I personally avoid it when I need it most, i.e. rush hour). It has a good bus and train service (a quick escape). It's recently had up to 300 new homes built (I would have sooner mentioned we have a Gregg's). The narrator also draws attention to Addlestone's "new" Civic Centre, newly completed in 2008. I join her in her admiration of the building for bringing a police station, library and Runnymede Borough Council offices under one roof, but "state-of-the-art"? I think someone's overestimating the charms of this building. Let's consider this for a moment...

It's always been my view that any new construction should compliment its local surroundings, or at the very least be a pleasure to look at. This might, for instance, involve taking inspiration from other nearby buildings or drawing on the local architectural flavour. Here's what the architects had in the vicinity to inspire them:

Here's what I would have recommended they steer clear of:

Here's the design they came up with:

That's right; the architects of Addlestone Civic Centre embraced the character of the local area wholeheartedly and chose to draw all inspiration from the worst period in architectural history: the 1960's. At least it's in harmony with its surroundings.

The narrator proudly announces that the Civic Centre will be the benchmark of design and quality the town can expect. I have to admit, that fills me more with horror than confidence. Still, for all my criticism the building won a Royal Institute of British Architects award in 2009 and was also shortlisted for a British Council for Offices Award and Building Award for Public Building of the Year in 2009. Baffled, I'll admit defeat on that one.

Lastly the narrator highlights the relatively sizable expanse of disused land right next to the Civic Centre which is available for development, and essentially another blank canvas for developers to do their magic on. It is to be used ideally for "a good mixture of shops and an investment catalyst that will help kickstart the recovery of the town". Hey I know, what about a TESCO?

The rest of the video is spent explaining that the regeneration of Addlestone would help it act as a springboard for two of Runnymede's other town centres, Egham and Chertsey. It transpires that this is all part of the council's "very ambitious agenda" involving all three towns, beginning with Egham, where phase one of the new "corporate business plan" will involve replacing car park space with a large development of a Waitrose and Travelodge, to start construction this year. Yet another supermarket along with a sterile, prosaic hotel. Why, that's too ambitious for words. I'm still not sure what it has to do with Addlestone.

So of course the question you all want to ask is, just what did Mary Queen of Shops think? Well, the twelve successful towns were announced in late May, and after a perusal or two of the winners I noticed Addlestone didn't feature among them.

Obviously, it was going to be a long shot in the first place. Addlestone was just one of many towns all around the country whose councils had an inkling that a local improvement or two wouldn't go amiss. If we had won funding, we would have had to concede that Addlestone was one of the twelve most desperate towns in the country, so we can crack open a carton of TESCO Value wine to celebrate in that respect.

Nonetheless, we don't quite know Mary's opinion. Perhaps she thought Addlestone had potential enough to thrive of its own accord eventually. On the other hand it could mean, as @addlesy suggested on Twitter, "maybe Mary felt we are a lost cause :(" It might be that she wasn't overly impressed with the plans that were laid out for the money. All are equally plausible.

However, we can give ourselves a better idea. Here is the list of successful towns and what they plan to spend the money on (copied from communities.gov.uk) along with links to their video bids where possible. I encourage you to watch them:

Bedford – offering mentoring support for High Street businesses and community use of empty properties.

Croydon, Greater London – transforming the riot-stricken area’s historic Old Town market into a thriving market, food and cultural quarter.

Dartford, Kent – opening up central spaces for use by classes and clubs, from the Scouts to Slimming World and starting a ‘school for shopkeepers’.

Bedminster, Bristol – putting Bedminster on the map for Street Art and Street Theatre. A bicycle rickshaw service and a review of parking will also tackle the traffic environment.

Liskeard, Cornwall – competing against the edge of town supermarket with a vibrant arts scene, guerrilla gardening and yarn bombing to inject fun back into the town centre.

Margate, Kent – putting education and enjoyment at the heart of the town centre’s transformation with courses, “job club” services and pop up shops.

Market Rasen, Lincolnshire – drawing customers in by restoring the market town look and feel, advertising free parking and mentoring new businesses.

Nelson, Lancashire – attracting local students with a young persons café, sports activities, and a new art and vintage market.

Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland – better branding of the town to draw people in, improving local transport and hosting pop up shops. 

Stockport, Greater Manchester – realising the character and potential of the Markets and Underbanks area with a creative arts complex, outdoor screenings, a new parking strategy and street champions.

Stockton on Tees, North Yorkshire – live entertainment at the Globe Theatre to boost the evening leisure economy alongside specialist High Street and evening markets.

Wolverhampton – bringing the city will to life with modern day town criers and on-street performers and a ‘dragon’s den’ style competition to support local entrepreneurs.

It swiftly becomes apparent that what the winning towns all share in their plans is an emphasis on localism; an interest in encouraging or propping up small businesses and local traders and embracing some form of local culture or tradition. They demonstrate ideas that will add vibrancy to their towns, creating something unique and different that's worth going to visit because it's the only place you can find it. There's something else they all featured - the most crucial component of all: LOCAL PEOPLE!

Compare the above videos with Addlestone's entry and you will notice that the focus in our bid was misguided. Far from encouraging localism or any sense of community spirit at all, it seemed more preoccupied with its faceless, corporate agenda that's in the pipeline for Runnymede (and which, for that matter, doesn't completely focus on Addlestone). Given that, it might be a blessing in disguise that the council didn't get the funds to play around with after all. Not that they could have reproduced Addlestone Civic Centre - that cost £16.4 million.

Congratulations to the winning towns, and I hope our council takes note in time for round two. If we can replicate the attitude of the successful towns, there's nothing stopping us from turning things around and producing something quite impressive with the space we have. A weekly market, perhaps? A leafy town square? Could we create a nifty little export with our very own "Addlestone Brewery"? It just takes a bit of vision.

What would you like to see in Addlestone? Or are you quite satisfied with what was proposed? Do you want to promote your business here? Leave a comment with your suggestions, or tweet me @TheAddlestonian.