Karen Scarborough pictured in Penton's with Nickie Aiken MP. This business is suffering from a lack of tourists as it stocks everything and more than you can imagine as a hardware store. This is a shop that has a brush for everything - including a brush for mushrooms!
Local Councillor Karen Scarborough met with our Cities of London and Westminster MP Nickie Aiken, to speak with some independent retailers in Marylebone.
Karen and Nickie visited Penton's, Daunt Books, French Sole, Sandfords Flower Stall and Paul Rothe & Son Delicatessen; to encourage us all to support our independent shops and to hear about the issues that they have been facing.
Some of the issues raised by Paul Rothe were the difficulties in getting daily bread delivered from the baker (Paul now has to go to Waitrose to buy his fresh bread!) and fish from the fishmonger, as these suppliers cannot afford to deliver to independent retailers in central London due to the combination of the Congestion Charge and the Low Emission Charge.
The independent retailers were also concerned about Business Rates. Nickie called for reform of local government finances in Parliament earlier in the year.
Everyone was appreciative of the help from the Government Furlough Scheme.
