Decline in Tarvin Highstreet

Greenacre Garage

Tarvin Cafe

Tarvin News

I have lived in Tarvin since I was 12. When we moved here, it was a thriving rural village with 2 butchers, hairdressers, travel agent, 2 banks, a chemist, post office, a petrol station, 3 pubs, a coffee shop and more. Over the years, one by one, all of our valued services have been eroded and we've lost much of what made Tarvin special. We all really need to start thinking more about what we have on our doorsteps and the families and livelihoods which those small businesses support.

Over the past couple of years, my partner and I have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic in our small coffee shop, providing some sense of 'normality' to the people of Tarvin, Kelsall and the surrounding areas. Our business is in Kelsall but I also have a computer support business based in Tarvin which has been severely impacted so I understand all too well.

Tarvin has one small coffee shop which support a mother and her family, there is soon to be a new cafe/coffee shop to take over Chocolate Lime after so long being empty which is great news.
What concerns me greatly is the loss of our garage which is currently incredibly well provided by Gary and his team who will soon be leaving after the garage has been bought by new owners. Luckily, Gary will still have his business but it will relocate and again, Tarvin will lose that incredible local, small retail business, an asset which the village will sadly, no longer have. In its place, the new owners want to turn Greenacre into another supermarket, with another Costa machine, hot food offerings and other services.

When the Co-op came to Tarvin, they promised it would not affect the high street, it did. Not only did it take away business from Greenacre which sold groceries, they started selling cards and papers which was Tarvin News'area of expertise then, they installed a Costa Express machine when we already had a coffee shop. They did the same thing in Kelsall, which affected our coffee shop too.

Competition is one thing when you're all on an even footing but when you have big companies or businesses with wealthy backing, it is unfair on existing businesses who are often pushed or priced out of business.

Surely, we do not need another supermarket in Tarvin. Tarvin Coffee Pot and the new coffee shop/cafe do not need another express machine only metres from the existing one and they don't need even more competition for food.

We are on a very slippery slope of losing all of our small businesses for good in our village and I really hope that Tarvin residents will think, act and support what we have and encourage into Tarvin new businesses. We know the city centres are dying and as a businessman myself, we were priced out of the city centre.

Why don't we all try and have all that we care about on our doorsteps? Let's make Tarvin great again, bring back small businesses, make it the place to pop down, grab a coffee, do some shopping and without the need to even use public transport.

Let's think about the choices we make and what we want our village to look like in the future. We can all do our bit to help shape decisions and planning to make this village great again.

Ed: We love Tarvin High Street and still think its a nice place to shop and socialise. We have always endeavoured to support local businesses great and small. Let us know what you think.. email us or add a comment to the Facebook page.