Unlocking Grays town centre's potential (From Thurrock Gazette)

“community budgeting”
“neighbourhood planning”
“virtual town network”
All of these are atypical of the hollow jargon terms employed thoughout the business world. I doubt if anyone who uses them can actually give a real definition.
"It has carved out a niche for itself as a haven for shoppers on a tight income", doesn't inspire me to go there.

What Grays needs is more immigrants with absolutrely no ties to the area and no knowledge of the local community. This should then be backed to the hilt by the local authority regardless of what the old local little Englanders feel. That should solve all our ill's

I'm glad Mr Farrant has finally opened his eyes and seen that Grays is a dying place. How he or the other council bigwigs have not noticed this is beyond me. Unfortunately it is not in the interest of the Thurrock Labour Party to want to regenerate Grays as this would attract investment, the town centre would become more pleasant with a mixed bag of shops catering for a wider market than those who are on a "tight budget". I like a pound shop every now and then but I do not want, or need, 5 of them in one place.

Lakeside has been open for 21 years and those in charge at the time should have had a plan in place to keep people coming into Grays and to make it worthwhile for businesses to stay in the town rather than relocating.

Grays is now on par with Barking and Dagenham when it comes town centres and that is no good thing.

Unfortunately the only place Grays is heading is down the toilet.

We came to Grays back in 2000 and whilst its quite industrial in places the Town Centre was reasonable, we had Somerfield, Mothercare, Gamelys Toy Shop, an Art Shop etc...

The council should be shot for allowing Morrisons to be built on the edge of the town centre, as in a stroke they removed the need for most people to go anywhere else - in short Lakeside seriously wounded Grays and Morrisons was the final Bullet to the head.

The madness of having to pay to park in Grays multi-storey car park further limits visitors. This should be free for the first 2 hours as it was in December.

Immigration hasnt helped as the African and Polish shops are largely pretty grotty and exclude the indigenous population further.

Such a large supermarket was always going to end the need for people to venture into the rest of Grays. I support having smaller supermarkets in town centres as they can bring people into the town centre but those as large as Morrisons become more of a hindrance than a help in the long run - which is the case in Grays.

Morrisons was badly placed as it allows people to drive in, away from the other shops, do their shopping and drive out again. Shoppers do not have to walk past any other shops which means they close down only to be replaced by the array that Grays displays at the moment.

The immigration point is also valid as such shops do very little for 'community cohesion' (Labours favourite phrase) as they actually divide people and cause barriers, particularly if there are no English signs in the shop window. The flip side to that is if they wern't there it would leave more empty units and less people using the town centre.

Grays needs an independent group of people to see through any regeneration who can apply a bit of common sense in getting the town centre back on track.

Unfortunatley Grays Town Center is a reflection of the local area which is slowly going further down the pan day by day.

Just how many Nail bars, estate agents, Afro-European & Eastern European and Charity stores does one town need? the town planners need to wake up and look at the applictaions that filter past then and stop the opening of any store that we already have an excess of.

Yes Morrissons has damaged the trade in the town but other specialised shops could still live alongside, i.e. a decent hardware store, local fishmongers, arts and crafts, etc

I disagree about Morrisons being bad for the town centre. The only time the wife and I visit Grays is to use Morrisons. We also use other shops e.g. the bakers and QD to buy items that Morrison don't sell. In othe words Morrisons acts as a "pull" for many people and attracts passing trade for other shops. If Morrisons were to close Grays would really suffer.

We moved to Grays to the then new Badgers Dene estate when we were married 27 years ago. We moved away from Newham as it wasn't a place that we wanted to bring children up in for obvious reasons. Grays was a nice area with Marks and Spencers, Woolworths, Samuels and some nice stores in it. Unfortunately in this relatively short amount of time, the whole area, led by Grays seems to be going in the same direction as Newham. Its a great shame and alot of the blame must fall to lack of planning, even with Lakeside opening this could have stayed a thriving town centre with some decent stores and free parking to attract shoppers. I still work in Grays and am sorry to see how it is going down the pan.

Grays should just concentrate on opening Eastern European and African shops.

Grays should also be renamed 'Polafra'.

The biggest thing missing in Grays is something to see it beyond about 1.30pm on a Saturday and 5pm weekdays. So something to do in the evenings.
I don’t care what people say the council is missing a huge trick with The State, god only knows what it’s like on the inside in terms of condition as the council has only ever seen to fit to let it slide. But if nothing else you have an auditorium that is the size of many venues in London, which could attract some big acts into the town, there is ample parking and people going to gigs and shows generally pay a small fortune to park their car (£20 in advance the last time I went to the O2), so make that free or cheap and there is a draw and the train station is not too far away, but this would need C2C to get their finger out. My favourite venue to see bands, by miles, was Hammersmith Odeon, very similar to The State, which is probably why I found it so appealing. It knocked spots off soulless dumps like Wembley Arena and more recently the O2 and the other vast sheds, with all of the acoustics of a metal dustbin.
But this does need the council having half a clue between them and actually supporting anyone who wants to take it over and use it as a venue. But they’ve never been very good at supporting entertainment in Grays in the recent past, unless it’s their own babies The Thameside or Civic Hall.
As for the town centre in general, the ethnic shops are a sign of the times and are not exactly inviting to the general population, as they cater for niche markets. The same can be said of nail and beauty shops, which are spawned due to people having more money than sense and the temporary nature of the product supplied, thus creating the need for revisits.
I can only agree with the negative impact Morrisons had, it may be a “pull” into the town but for many Morrisons is the only shop they visit. I do feel that they are insecure as a business, otherwise why charge people to park in the car park.
As fro Bernard’s remarks regarding those in charge when Lakeside opened, we had a Labour Council then, as we do now and I don’t see them as you say wanting Grays to become a thriving place again, as it would fly in the face of their raison d’etre of keeping people in their place. To be honest the people who built Lakeside never had much of clue either, as all they created was a 2½ish storey town centre, when it could have been so much more. But this could have been as result of blinkered thinking among council ‘planners’ at the time.
Whatever way you look at it, the voting preference for Thurrock over the years has been it’s downfall, Labour expect to get voted in, which has bred complacency and contempt for the people of Thurrock, as they believe they don’t have to try and therefore we have stagnation leading to decline. It was funny when they were voted out a few years ago as they couldn’t see why people voted against them. I remember at the time speaking to ex-councillors who were at a loss to see why, which actually spoke volumes.

Thats because Labour sincerely believe that they have a right to be consistantly in power in places like Thurrock. Nearly every other part of Essex has rejected them and prospered while Thurrocks 'propersing' has been a great deal slower thanks to our love of Labour.

You are right Dave when you say their mantra is to keep everyone in their place and to keep us divided rather than united. Under a Labour council I expect nothing to happen to Grays whatsoever - except another takeaway or pound shop if we're lucky.