An Alderley Edge boutique is preparing to close down having decided not to renew their lease because of a lack of footfall and parking in the village.
Janice Hall opened Willow Boutiques on London Road in July 2016, in the premises previously occupied by Atelier Bride.
This was the third shop for Willow Boutiques, having first opened in Knutsford in 2011 and the following year Janice opened her second Willow store in Hale. Since then the company has opened a branch in Newcastle, Staffordshire.
Janice Hall told alderleyedge.com "We have reluctantly decided not to renew our lease on the Alderley Edge shop which finishes in early June.
"Although we have been extremely well accepted in Alderley Edge there has not been enough footfall for this type of business. Parking issues have contributed greatly to low footfall. There simply is little or no parking available for our customers who want to come into Willow to browse and try on clothes.
"For ourselves to drop off and pick up stock it is a major task.Once again there is nowhere to park when unloading or loading our vehicles. When you arrive to work all parking spots are taken for the whole day by office staff. We end up having to park at the bottom of Ryleys lane and haul bags of stock up from there."
For the next few months the Alderley Edge shop will be operating as a clearance centre for all the Willow Boutiques, with new stock being delivered every Friday from the other locations.
Janice added "We would like to thank all of our customers who have supported us and remind them that we have three other locations that they can visit once we close."
She continued "I hope that Alderley Edge can sort out its parking soon as they will continue to lose some fantastic shops unless it has parking to support not only its own residents but to accommodate those who want to visit the town and shop there."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I am working hard to try and improve the parking situation, but I do believe that a regular turnover of spaces is necessary to increase footfall, rather than just having more long-stay spaces. For this reason, we recently introduced fifteen new short-stay spaces around the village centre. The proposed one-way system on George/South/West St will enable us to create a further seven, hopefully later this year.
I also believe that it is important to reduce the limit on South Street Car Park to 3 hours (thereby increasing the turnover of spaces). To date, this has not been possible because there has been nowhere for the displaced vehicles to go to; however, the proposed one-way system for Chorley Hall Lane will enable us to create almost 20 new long-stay spaces and provide an alternative for some of the people who currently use South Street Car Park.
Of course, the ultimate aim is to extend the Ryleys Lane Car Park and provide a new car park at Heyes Lane; however, the issues around removing public open space/recreational open space, as well as the need to get planning permission and remove covenents, mean that neither option can be pursued quickly or easily. For the time being, finding additional on-street spaces remains the quickest and most cost effective option.
I would like to wish Janice and Willow Boutiques all the very best for the future.
The only time you can park is at night when people park anywhere due to its abundance of restaurants and bars and when there are no parking wardens around
It needs parking capacity and until it does that's all alderley will be - a restaurant and bar place with no shops - look how many 'ordinary' shops have shut down probably for the same reason in the village
Come on Craig, you know it has to be.
The current facination with putting cars on Chorley Hall lane field is too far away from shops such as Willow to make any difference and will cause additional complications and added traffic to the railway bridge.
Building a deck on the Ryleys lane car park should never get planning given the proximity of St Philips.
The Heyes Lane site will give additional frontage and visibility to the Festival hall and make it more viable as a venue.
Perhaps Chess could get involved in helping to fund the car park development as it would be of great benefit to them and their staff and visitors.
Lets hope the Parish Council will grasp the Nettle and get on with it?
People want to park in the vilage so something has to change we need a space big enough to relive some of the situation involving parking the vilage needs cleaning picking up your dogs mess is a start but what about cigaret buts broken bottles glasses of half drunk wine ,bottles and cans of beer food packages why don't we all pick up instead of fighting each other work together