Shoppers in a Nottinghamshire town have shared their sadness that people 'drive through their town but do not stop'. People living and working in Netherfield have witnessed traffic flowing through to the nearby Victoria Retail Park and new stores on Colwick Loop Road, but have noticed a large drop off in the number of people shopping in the town centre.
Victoria Retail Park is home to big brands like Next, Marks and Spencer's and JD Sports, as well as places to eat and drink like Nando's and Starbucks. A huge new Sainsbury's store off the A612 Colwick Loop Road opened in November 2021, with a Aldi food store set to open this summer at Teal Park off the Loop Road, between Stoke Bardolph and Netherfield.
A local business owner thought the larger shops which had set up at the retail park and more recently on the Loop Road had made Netherfield town centre a place people drove through to get elsewhere. Peter Dye, 66, who owns the Netherfield Pound Shop on Victoria Road, said: "They could stop here and buy in local shops, but mostly people travel through to go to the retail park.
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"Everyone seems to come driving around here. But there's not a lot of footfall any more really.
"A lot of the little shops are gone and there's no bank. Traffic has always been the same - not very good."
Residents in the town centre agreed there had been a decline in people shopping locally but that there was more traffic than ever passing through. Adam Woodland, 51, from Netherfield, said: "There are a lot of people that drive through but not a lot of people shopping around.
"People use it as a cut through. The traffic is crazy here when the train comes through - it all backs up. I had hoped the new stuff on the Loop Road would bring more people into town and make it busier, but it just looks like more people will be driving past."
Annette Gamble, 63, a retiree from Netherfield, said: "There's a lot more congestion than there was 15 or 20 years ago. People are coming through town more but no one is out in the town centre.
"There's less for people when they go past to see and stop for. All the banks have gone, we used to have four, and we had some lovely shops that are gone.
"There's too many HMOs as well so if you don't have resident parking, you would find it hard to get a parking space. Even if you do live here, you might get a parking space you might not."
A Netherfield resident, who did not want to be named, added: "Sometimes you can't get anywhere because of the traffic. There's too much down at the retail park.
"People drive back and forth but don't stop - there's more people in cars than in the street.
"The traffic is bad when the train crossing closes. But people still drive about and don't go to local shops."
