File:Thinking about the Mary Portas Review -3.jpg

English: 22 February 2012. Plants, baskets, signs and other displayed goods spilling onto the pavements outside shops 400-430 High Road, Tottenham N17.

Attractive shop window displays and, to some extent, some goods on the pavement, add to the liveliness and interest of a shopping street.

Haringey is keen to encourage customers to use the High Road shops. Businesses here were badly hit following the Tottenham riot in August 2011.

But pavements along our High Road are often narrow. So goods placed outside shops further narrow the space available for pedestrians. And can pose a problem for people with a physical disability.

This part of Tottenham High Road is a main "red route". So Transport for London (TfL) is responsible for maintaining it; and not Haringey Council.

Goods stacked on pavements make them harder to keep clean - whether sweeping or washing .

And there's a linked issue of who owns land adjoining the front of the shops. It's not always public land owned by the local Council. ____________________________

§ Aerial view of where I took this photo. § The Portas Review

§ BBC News 13 December 2011. Mary Portas unveils report into High Street revival.

§ Short video of Mary Portas in the Daily Telegraph 13 December 2011. We need to create new magnets on our high streets. § The Daily Telegraph 12 December 2011, quoted from foreword to the Portas Review (Several of the comments below the quotation are also very interesting.) Portas insisted that she was not "pointing fingers of blame" at out-of-town retail. She was also refreshingly unsentimental about what most retail customers actually seek out.   "The fact is that the major supermarkets and malls have delivered highly convenient, needs-based retailing, which serves today’s consumers well. Sadly, the high streets didn’t adapt as quickly or as effectively. Now, they need to."   ". . . my report is not about nostalgia; nor is it a sentimental plea to nurture and protect small shopkeepers above all else. The days of a high street populated simply by independent butchers, bakers and candlestick makers are, except in the most exceptional circumstances, over. How we shop as a nation has quite simply changed beyond recognition. For ever." § Elizabeth Cox, New Economics Foundation (NEF): Here's what the Portas Review Missed Out. § Webpage and publication from NEF (New Economics Foundation) Reimagining the High Street and how we can "Escape from Clone Town Britain". § New Economics Foundation: Clone Town Britain. § Stuart Baldock from the Tory Reform Group hopes the Portas Review won't stay on the shelf.

§ Highland and Islands Greens: the: “The recent excellent and comprehensive Mary Portas report".