Breathe new life into our local High Streets and towns

Alex Burghart supports Brentwood and Ongar's towns and High Streets

The Conservatives will save the Great British High Street.

There is a great entrepreneurial spirit here in Essex – but some of our local High Streets are struggling, hit by online shopping. The Prime Minister has announced a three point plan to help reverse this decline by making it easier for shoppers to withdraw cash by scrapping business rates on free-to-use machines, by cutting the number of empty premises by making it simpler for businesses to set up shop, and substantially increasing the Future High Streets Fund to improve transport and access and convert empty retail units.

News

Progress with Caution

Four months after the formal start of the lockdown designed to stop the exponential growth of the spread of COVID-19 and to stop the NHS being overwhelmed by people needing intensive respiratory care, the country is making progress - progress with caution, but progress nonetheless. 

Shaping Up for Summer

Each week I am able to report in this column further steps in the Government’s roadmap to gradually reopen businesses and community facilities which had to close during the long, hot, weeks of total lockdown.

News Release: Alex Backs 'Eat Out to Help Out'

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has provided a much-needed boost for tourism and hospitality businesses in Brentwood and Ongar, as part of his Summer Economic Update to kickstart the economy post-coronavirus.

Prepare for Our High Streets' Independence Day this 4th July

I have no doubt the High Streets and town centres of Brentwood, Ongar, Shenfield, North Weald, Ingatestone, West Horndon and Abridge will be busier this weekend as the latest lifting of lockdown restrictions allows restaurants, pubs, libraries and churches to reopen – albeit under strict COVID se

Bubbles and Shopping

The guidance on keeping safe and alert against the deadly virus, COVID-19, has been cautiously relaxed this week with non-essential retail shops allowed to open, and single person households allowed to form a “bubble” with another household.

Brentwood Borough Council Keeps In Touch with Businesses via Teleconference

Businesses and high streets are facing a monumentous challenge due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and it is great to see Brentwood Borough Council is making sure local businesses are being kept informed and being heard. The government recognises the need to balance its information and gui

Good News for Ongar High Street

2nd April 2020

Update: 

As a result of the Coronavirus, Essex County Council has made the difficult decision to suspend current works in Ongar High Street.   This is necessary in order to protect staff, the public and to help restrict the spread of the virus.