Denis Robinson column: Focus on thriving alternative and call it The Highbury Hub

Not surprisingly, our session last week was dominated by a discussion about Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But we also spoke about a topic much closer to home, namely the decline of Bulwell town centre.

For one thing, the popular Budget Wise food store in the Clock Tower building on Commercial Road will cease trading on March 22.

I did some shopping there last weekend and an assistant was close to tears when I told her how much the store would be missed.

The Bulwell and Hucknall branch of the NatWest Bank is to close on May 26 and the local Boots store has reduced its opening hours by half an hour each day.

Meanwhile there has been a sharp drop in the number of stalls on Bulwell Market.

But if there is a considerably lower footfall through the town centre in the daylight hours, the night-time scene is even more depressing.

It is quite possible to walk along the pedestrian area in the evening without seeing another soul.

The desolate expanse of the Market Place makes Bulwell look chillingly like a ghost town.

But during our chat, Charles and I hit upon the notion that Bulwell has a thriving alternative retail focal point.

This comprises the shopping area on Highbury Road, between Henrietta Street and Piccadilly.

There are quite a lot of well-established businesses in this location and it has a highly-populated catchment area on both sides.

This neighbourhood includes the Oxford pub.

While we were talking together, Charles suggested that its car park would make an ideal site for a weekly market.

As a local resident myself, it is just as easy for me to walk there as to the town centre and I would not have to traipse up the steep hill when returning home.

So it would be well worth promoting this part of Bulwell as a new town centre which could justifiably be called the Highbury Hub.

What do other readers think?