Call for shops to open Sundays and later at night

A councillor has urged more Spalding businesses to open later and on Sundays.

Coun Gary Taylor has urged more businesses to extend their opening hours so the town can compete with others.

“People can go to religious events as well as going shopping,” he told the Spalding Town Forum last week about Sunday opening. “I believe there’s an opportunity to tap in to Sunday in Spalding.

“We offer free car parking Sundays and late nights and there’s the opportunity there to impress that point.

“I believe there’s a gap there and we need to compete with some of our rival towns.
South Holland District Council’s assistant director of strategic growth and development, Matthew Hogan said: “It’s a conversation we’ve had with our sub-group.

“There’s examples of businesses doing more weekend openings, less so late night shopping.

“Coney’s is opening Sundays and Bank Holidays too and it’s good to see that its being successful for them.

“In other areas businesses would need to have the confidence they can generate the footfall so it’s a very difficult thing for the district council to influence.

“The more businesses do it and have the confidence to open at the weekend and evenings, it’ll give others the confidence to do the same as well.

“Businesses can look to other examples in the town of those that are making a success of opening.”

The Voice spoke to Darren Sutton, of Charmed Interiors and Bookmark, about Sunday opening. He’s the chairman of the Spalding Retailers Association but said the group was effectively on hold at the moment and hadn’t met for over three years.

“We wouldn’t want to open up on a Sunday at the moment with the costs of utilities.

“When we took over Bookmark we did Sunday trading for a while but there wasn’t anything like the footfall needed to make it sustainable.”