baby and bathwater

Two articles in Chron today on facing pages which seem to me to have a link. One on cracking down on illegal pedlars in the city and one on a business data specialist's report which puts Bath at 30th in the country in a league of "shopping hotspots", dropping 8 places since last year. Experian's criteria for this league include high and varied number of outlets, large amount of retail space and big department stores. The big stores issue will be helped by the Southgate redevelopment and I hope that this work does really start next year. But Bath is loved by both local shoppers and tourists for the great variety of small, specialist traders in the city. They contribute enormously to the city's individuality and buzz. Genuine pedlars with good quality local goods add to this variety and to the street scene as a whole. Certainly, let's make sure pedlars are trading legally, but let's not throw out the baby with bathwater and seem so draconian that we frighten off the genuine article.