22 • EdenLocal
Is your town changing?
How often do people walk through the town or their nearest town to where they live and not just look in the windows but look around them and above? There are some fantastic buildings seen above the new windows and frames and some, well some are very similar to how they looked more than 100 years ago. Are you one of those people that is captivated by curiosity of an older style shop that hasn’t got the fancy gadgets and lighting that in some ways may have the window of the Millennium, but in a sad way it has ripped the character out of the premises and defaced something that for many years served as an invitation to shop locally to generations? In the Eden Valley we have many independent businesses. Do you always notice what is in the window and do you ever get to take that step further and open the door?
EdenLocal
The magazine that relies on doors for circulation not sales
In a short story, where I lived once there was a traditional sweet shop; you know the type - big glass jars of sweets, possibly its rival was pick and mix but it made it through the Woolworths reign. Boiled sweets, Fruit Salads, Black Jacks, humbugs, chocolate mice, sherbet flying saucers etc, price per ¼ of a pound or in single one penny units pre-decimal, then ½ penny and new one penny after 1970. Unfortunately three years after its 100 year celebration it closed. Yes a family business of four generations gone. Unfortunately the Town Council already committed to saving and buying the local theatre, developing a property portfolio, refurbishing its own mansion as a wedding and events venue. As well as its offices, it also owned public toilets, parks, cemeteries and allotments and many other assets of the town. It couldn’t help on this occasion, but that was before the Localism Act. In the Eden Local this month we feature new businesses and talk about some that go back to Victorian times. Two buzz words out there at the moment that were raised at a recent Eden District Council meeting were ‘Community Asset’. In case you didn’t know, what is an asset of community value? Under the Localism Act of 2012, the community right to bid allows community groups to bid for community assets. This could be private or publicly owned buildings or land used by the community that is for sale. The community asset has to be on Eden District Council’s community asset list. Once the community group has made the bid, they have six months to find