Worries over Wentworthville’s future after shops, bank close
Plans remain for another supermarket at Wentworthville Mall but long-suffering traders and the community are fed up with the decline of a once-thriving shopping centre they don’t want to “go downhill like Toongabbie”.
Plans remain for another supermarket at Wentworthville Mall but long-suffering traders and the community are fed up with the decline of a once-thriving shopping centre they don’t want to “go downhill like Toongabbie”.
IGA supermarket’s closure last year hit the Dunmore St mall hard.
Some say St George bank’s closure on Friday, a casualty of the supermarket’s demise, will be the death knell for the mall.
Cumberland councillor Lisa Lake wants a development application for an 18-storey apartment complex with two storeys of retail to be fast tracked to revive the centre. Austino submitted the application last year.
“I would hope that we would be able to push through the development application pretty quickly because the planning proposal set out in detail what the intentions were and what they want to do with the site,’’ Cr Lake said.
She said trade had shifted to Station St.
“It used to be Dunmore St, and it’s pretty lively, but with the mall it’s very quiet and it needs development.”
Granville state Labor MP Julia Finn called a short term solution such as pop-up shops before a supermarket opened.
“In the meantime, the community is suffering,’’ she said.
Austino Property Group manager Raquel Bazergy said it was supporting tenants and wanted a 4000sq m supermarket to be the anchor tenant. But retailers say management had not adequately supported them.
CTC Tobacconist owner Cheng Ly said she had to pay rent until 2020 and was struggling to make ends meet.
“It’s like a ghost town here,’’ she said.
Donna’s Flowers owner John Lynch agreed.
“There is no future here, ” he said.
THE SHOPPERS
Wentworthville customer Graham Bayly called on the centre management to assist traders.
“It’s absolutely disgusting and I think the shopping centre has to get off its butt and do something,’’ he said.
“The supermarket would bring terrific flow. Now I don’t shop here and I have to go to Woolworths.”
For long-time local Greta Martin, the bank and shops’ closure represented a loss in community.
“I am fed up with it,’’ she said. “There’s nothing left inside. I’m watching this place go down the gurgler.
“We’ve still got older people living in the area and isolated people so if this goes, where are other people going to go to get out of the house?”
While waiting for her coffee at eatery Zues, Ms Martin said the mall was vital to provide a sense of community and did not want it to become like Toongabbie when it was redeveloped.
“I’ve watched Toongabbie turn from a vibrant little place to those units, car crashes, parking. We don’t want a Westfield tower, we just want to live,” she said.
“I’m more concerned about the community. The little shop which used to serve a doughnut and a coffee.
“Where are those people in the community going to go? People don’t want to be stuck in apartments.
“People used to just get out of their homes and there was a JP here every week. Why can’t they tell them what’s going on to give them a lifestyle choice?”
THE BUSINESSMAN
If anyone has witnessed Wentworthville’s change over three decades, it’s Peter Como.
The popular key cutter and shoe repair man has worked at the pint-sized shop at Station St since 1985 and has no plans to retire.
He repairs fewer shoes than in the business’ heyday but a shift in living patterns means he is cutting multiple keys for several families living under the same roof.
At 74, he is not too fazed about his future.
“It’s a ghost town here,” he said. “Most of the shops got out. I don’t make much money, I do it for the love of it.”
CHANGING TRENDS
It does not have a supermarket in the main street but one thing Wentworthville has in abundance is Indian and Sri Lankan grocery stores and eateries.
As with neighbouring Pendle Hill and Toongabbie, the past decade has seen such businesses dominate the main drag.
Ms Finn said traders were lured there by affordable rents.
But Ms Finn, who has a penchant for subcontinent cuisine, said many older shoppers just wanted basic items.
“I like Indian supermarkets but older residents, they don’t necessarily go to the Indian supermarkets,’’ she said.
“If you’re 85 and you’re going out to buy bread and milk, it’s a bit confusing.
“For the things they really need, they have to go out of the area or at least further away, which is difficult for those who don’t have cars.”
The bank’s closure will also hurt, Ms Finn said.
“It is another blow to the shopping centre and the people in the community.
“It’s a symptom of the decline in the shopping centre.
“Station St’s doing OK but Dunmore St and the mall have been going downhill for ages.”
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