Whilst I wholeheartedly welcome the arrival of CAPPUCCINO Grand Café at
Sis Pins -it will raise standards in the port in a way a naff cafe selling english breakfasts at 4 euros never will,(not agin' naff cafes, but everything has it's place) I must have some reservations on the future vibrancy of the Square. If Cappuccino becomes the in place for the trendy moneyed visitor and locals, and nearby premises tag on to it's coat tails and up their game to cream off some of that 'spend', then the Square could be left as an also ran. It won't be a place to people watch if there are no interesting people!
Here, Morrisons have just taken over an abysmal Coop superstore within the town centre shopping area - and seen a huge increase in shoppers from out of town. Further down the road Tesco have started building a new store -across the road Aldi opened a new store last year. Before anyone shouts 'Tescoply! they are taking over the world' - residents here are overwhelmingly in favour of these developments, and this argument is not the point of this post.
The point is that as a town centre grows, develops, the centre can 'move'. In our case, the town square (the conventional centre of the town) becomes less busy as shoppers and visitors are attracted to the newer developments at the other end of the 'main street'. This movement started when the Coop opened their store 10 years ago. New independent shops tended to open near to the Coop store - after all this is where the footfall was. Tesco and Aldi have just followed the trend.
Back to the PP Square - will there be enough activity in the square to keep *ums on seats?
I certainly hope so - if the Council are spending some money, hopefully the spend will be so designed to keep the (mainly) visitors happy and the square vibrant and interesting.
The Square as a sort of 'destination',has been a little dull and disapointing over the last couple of years.
Even so, wouldn't miss our visits to PP for the world!!