When I started writing Pensioners in Paradis, the opening pages centred on a typical English shopping street, with its mix of vehicles and hordes of shoppers providing a pot pourri of life itself. Today, there have been so many essential urban infrastructure changes in the name of climate change, our local and city centre shopping streets are unrecognisable. Side roads deliberately blocked off, access impeded and vehicle owners hounded out of existence - effectively causing all those lovely department stores and small shops to close due to lack of shoppers. What they have done is channel shoppers away from the wonderful shopping experiences of yesteryear towards the anodyne anonymity of lonely, online purchases. No joy, no shopping pleasure, just functional ordering/receiving - ironically adding yet more delivery vans onto our closed off roads. Take a look at all the happy shoppers in this photo of Birmingham city centre in the ‘50s. Please can we go back? Simple really. Stop emission zones (which only push traffic jams to another nearby road), reduce shop business rates to encourage more traders, restore easy access and provide ample nearby free parking for shoppers. Only then can we all really live again. Voila!
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