Tory Council – let us ignore Rugby’s empty shops

The Liberal Democrats' Cllr Neil Sandison consistently raises the drop in footfall in Rugby's Town Centre and proposes ways to address the problem - see http://rugby.lib.dm/a9Qkm and http://rugby.lib.dm/a3Zm2. When the town's cabinet met last (June 2015) Neil was the only councillor to raise the 12% drop in visitors to the town centre.

Meanwhile Rugby's ruling tory group seem to veer frantically between three approaches:

(a) First there is the braggadocio of tory group leader Michael Stokes who at the last Council meeting declared that the forthcoming Rugby World Cup would lead to a situation where there would be "So many people in Rugby Centre we won't be able to see the [empty] shop fronts" - see http://rugby.lib.dm/a4ZCz .

(b) Then there is the approach of tory cabinet member Cllr Helen Timms who says we should not worry because Rugby's level of empty shops is below that of comparable towns - see http://rugby.lib.dm/a3Zm2 .

(c) Now the conservatives appear to have adopted a new approach - stop measuring the problem and it will go away. Rugby Borough Council used to study the number of empty shops in the town centre and regularly report on them. Not any more. A report coming to the Cabinet this Tuesday (18 August 2015) says "… it has been agreed that the data source for these measures does not reflect what is trying to be measured. As such the data in these measures holds no value …".