With high streets struggling, Whitehaven Town Council has adopted an innovative approach to supporting business

When Whitehaven Town Council was re-established in 2015 following a roughly 50-year hiatus, one of its first tasks was to ask Gerard Richardson, who runs the wine shop Richardson’s of Whitehaven, to come on board. At first he demurred – he was a busy man and suffering from ill health – but eventually, in 2018, he accepted an advisory role. Now, as well as providing advice, which he admits isn’t always solicited, he’s co-opted onto the events subcommittee as a non-elected member. Its aim is simple: to support business by attracting people to the town.

“Around Cumbria, I’m not aware of another parish council that has a business attitude,” he says. “I liked the approach of the town council and I liked the fact that they could see the town centre as a place for everyone. We’re creating an environment that’s suitable for business and that’s a very unique position for a parish council.”

The town hosts a whole programme of events aimed at all ages and interests. “The first thing we did was Cumbrian traders’ markets,” explains Gerard. “You’ve got to cook it or make it in Cumbria to pass our test but if you do, you get a free stall. We’re always on a reserve list, we’re always looking for more space.

“Then we added things like continental markets. We do them on the Harbourside and they’ve got a slightly different flavour to them. Everything we do is effectively based around bringing people into the town centre with the specific aim of shopping. At Christmas, we had a Christmas fair and it culminated in a fireworks display. It was timed for just when the shops were closing. This year, we’re planning the same but a light show. Again, it will be during shopping hours.”

Like town centres up and down the country, Whitehaven has had a bruising few years. “Our high street has been hit badly, like everywhere, but it was always more suitable for local and regional traders with small units, so there is a way out for us if we can attract our own small businesses,” says Gerard. “Whitehaven has just lost Clintons cards, so yet another. Last year, we gained two local entrepreneurs and now with Clintons, we’ve lost two, but at least the trend is towards the regional or local, which is what we want.”

As a business owner himself, Gerard has first-hand experience of the difficulties. “It’s sometimes felt like one blow after another,” he admits. “Some of the businesses are still reeling from the financial crash. We used to watch them open up on the main shopping street and they would have a team of shopfitters, a team of cleaners, then a team to dress the window. We thought we must be doing something wrong but it all turned out to be a house of cards.

“It’s been extremely difficult. I think Covid put paid to the last of the struggling businesses. The ones that have survived Covid have survived because they were financially strong or had a bit of nous to them. We’ve gone fully online now and it’s responsible for about 20 per cent of our trade. It’s almost all new trade. We’re all learning lessons as we go. We’ve been going 27 years now and we’ve learned so much since Covid.”

Despite appearances, says Gerard, Whitehaven is holding its own. “On the face of it, if you walk through the town you’ll see empty shop after empty shop, but there are 168 businesses ranging from shops to makeup and hairdressing parlours, a print shop and jewellers. It’s a mix of retail and service. There are over 180 when you include things like dentists and accountants. The high street is still a vibrant place, it’s just changed. It used to be three quarters retail. Now it’s less than half.”

Key to Whitehaven’s success – and something Gerard feels it should capitalise on – is its individuality. “Whitehaven does have something unique – Dixons, a family-owned department store,” he says. “There are only about five family-owned, independent department stores in the country. I’ve been telling the local authorities for the last 20 years that we should be singing this from the rooftops.

“We’ve got Brooks electrical, a specialist electrical retailer. They’ve been in business since 1905. We have a phenomenal number of family-owned businesses that are clocking up 100 years or more in trade. The Harbour Commission is 315 years old.

“You can sit on Lowther Street in a café in the spring and summer and at one end of the street, you’ve got Lowther Castle, which is just beautiful, and at the other end, you have a marina. How many other towns have a marina at the end of the street?”

In Gerard’s view, attracting people to Whitehaven is relatively easy. “Every single time we have one of these events it packs the town,” he says. “People don’t need much more of an excuse to come back into the town centre.”