What is going on?

This operation appeared on the edge of the Common recently, roughly gmaps 51.335292, -0.290566. There is little going on inside and there are no nearby construction sites.

Have a rival troop of Chainsaw Volunteers established a bridge head on the Common? Rival that is to our own, all too well established troop. Is it an outpost of the operations at Malden Rushett, a mile to the west? Is it some organ of the secret state keeping an eye on dodgy goings on?

I then carried on down Horton Lane to find that the Horton Retail Unit, with its 7 units, completed in 2009 or so, is now about to be filled up, with the last three units being taken by a baker, a dry cleaner and a vet. The bakery is not yet up and running but there are some sacks of superfine white in the window, so maybe it is going to be the sort of baker that bakes. Maybe they will sell decent white bread. Maybe I could go and work there for free in return for being taught how to bake decent white bread?

I have been bleating (see, for example, reference 2) about how awful it is that the council insisted on there being shops in the middle of this new housing estate for some time now. Left to me, they would have just used the space for housing and not tried to flog the dead horse of corner shops. But after five years, the place is filled up: grocer, a charity (maybe service delivery as well as shop), a chemist, a chipper, a vet, a dry cleaners and a baker. To think that my bet was on a hairdresser and a bookie. Was the five year wait to let, without rent, worth it? What is a reasonably time, if the market is in reasonable condition, not too hot and not too cold, to wait? At least a quick peek at the internet reveals that the council is on the case. See reference 1.

A little later I came back to the rather smaller retail development, the replacement of the between wars parade at the northern end of Manor Green Road, roughly gmaps 51.339743, -0.277348, half of which is occupied by what appears to be a thriving Costcutter and one of the four remaining units of which is occupied by the butcher who has been on the site, if not in that particular shop, for ever. Not only are three commercial units still empty, after more than a year or so, but some of the flats above are empty too. So much for the chronic and disgraceful shortage of affordable housing - which would suggest that the time to let a flat ought to be a matter of weeks rather than months.

Bottom line, who knows. I certainly don't!

Reference 1: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8152054/LocalShoppingCentreStudyFinalVersionJuly2012.pdf.

Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=We+want+small+shops.