Brigg town centre was amazingly, and surprisingly, busy today, given the economic climate and general air of doom and gloom nationally and internationally.
Among the shoppers thronging Wrawby Street and the Market Place was Town Mayor Coun Mike Campion, who expressed his delight at seeing the town doing so well.
Obviously much was down to the monthly farmers' market attracting people into our town who might not normally have been there on a Saturday morning, but Mike was at pains to point out how many folk were visiting businesses and using services unconnected with the market.
It was so busy some cars were circling Lidl and Tesco car parks waiting for other motorists to leave so they could get parked. It took me a good 10 minutes to find a slot near the ex-Smith Parkinson exhaust and tyre building.
Brigg businesses come and go, of course, and a short walk down the Old River Ancholme towpath today demonstrated just that.
I stopped to admire the terracota Spring's jam factory sign built into the wall on the side of Lidl's building. Spring's - once a very large employer in the town - bit the dust in the 1970s, another decade which saw the UK suffer some very low spots economically, including the three-day week, oil crisis, power cuts and rampant inflation.
Let's hope things don't get that bad in 2009.
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I hope you & Mr Campion are right, but I was quite concerned today. You see, I always go the Farmer's Market around lunchtime - late in market terms - and as a consequence I often miss out on things I want. In fact, if I'm really desperate to get an item, I often phone the supplier to place an order. Today however, I had no problems getting everything I wanted (there was also plenty of parking space at the Angel). If I had freezer space, I could have bought an awful lot more.
I have loved the way Brigg has developed over the past few years. There are some really individual shops now, which I do try to support. I was delighted at the way a greengrocer & a deli opened up AFTER Tesco arrived, in defiance of the usual way supermarket's seem to affect other retailers. We still have at least 4 butchers shops when most towns have none!
The Farmer's Market is great too, not to mention award-winning. I really, really hope that the coming year will not see these retailers disappearing, particularly in a recession artificially caused by the greed of bankers.
A couple of local councils (Essex & Birmingham apparently; Moneybox, Radio 4 today) are starting schemes to un-crunch the credit in their areas. I would welcome N Lincs doing something similar.
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