West Wickham Residents' Association

High Street News

In a quarter which was characterised by a number of shops shutting down, it is a pleasure to see the enlargement and refurbishment of the Clarks footwear outlet at 37 High Street. As this new bright shop will be larger than its predecessor it will be able to carry a 30% larger range of footwear (an increase of 2,000 pairs) giving a much greater choice for all customers. The shop continues to be managed by Jacky with the help of a largely unchanged staff and will be the best Clarks unit in the area. Why not pop in and see what the revitalised shop has to offer and give it the chance to fulfil your needs and expectations before rushing off to Bromley, Lakeside or Bluewater.

We are also pleased to report that Options Hair at 105 High Street is now trading in comprehensively refurbished premises and is helping to brighten up the lower end of the High Street.

We are sorry to see the closure of New Leaf Interiors and have no information about plans for its future use.

If you were running a shop and your shopfront were vandalised would you pull out all the stops to get it fixed without delay? You would. Well, the Council has no shops but it provides a number of noticeboards in the Borough, one of which is outside our Post Office in Station Road. It is cleaned by the WWRA and is used for a large number of notices of local interest. It was vandalised half way through last year. We asked the Council to repair it; they said they would within weeks; they didn't; we asked again; they said they would; they failed again; we asked again and enlisted the help of our councillors; they gave us first class support and contacted the Council officers; the officers said they were on the case and action would be taken; as we go to press on 5th February - approximately seven months since the first request for action - the vandalised noticeboard still stands there as a testament to a display of utter incompetence.