As more and more retail outlets and services move to West Auckland we begin to wonder what is wrong with Newton Aycliffe – the most highly populated town in the County Durham authority area?
Residents ask why can’t we attract big shops and a cinema? The reason is we lost the opportunity years ago to have a Retail Park on our Industrial Estate!
Whilst it was happening elsewhere the planners stuck to their guns, insisting our Industrial Estate should be for manaufacturing only and to allow retailing would harm our Town Centre businesses.
What a shocking lack of foresight and ignorance when it was quite obvious manufacturing was being lost in this country to cheaper imports.
Newton News fought to change their minds, but the cries of Aycliffe residents went unheard. In recent years the ‘manufacturing only rule’ has been dropped and we have seen some retail and service industry introduced on the business Park as planners realise any new job is acceptable.
There are still many advance factories lying idle and we can only hope the Hitachi train project will fill a few.
But it is too late for a retail development similar to West Auckland as other, more enterprising planners, and marketeers have siezed their chance as Aycliffe stood still.
These new areas of business are now benefitting from Aycliffe residents, many of whom are now their customers because, as was always the case, our town centre is small and inadequate and Newtonians have to shop out of town for some commodities to get the choice they require.
West Auckland has been added to the list of places they shop to the delight of businesses opening in this small village with low rents and overheads.
Newton News have been informed by two young Aycliffe ladies wishing to open a new business that they found the shops in Aycliffe to be twice the rental asked in Darlington.
As you would expect they are opening there knowing Newtonians use Darlington to shop and the larger town will give a greater footfall and more business.
