After wandering around for a while I finally worked out what is going on. It seems that a water pipe has burst so the Security team have decided to close the whole of the shopping centre. How did I find this out? Not from the Newlands Centre itself but from a hand scrawled sign in Specsavers window.
As per normal there is no communication from the people looking after the Newlands Centre. As they are clearly unable to write anything on a piece of paper I no longer park in the car park on a Sunday.
It is free parking on a Sunday but they do not communicate this at the entrance so you have to queue up to get in as the car in front tries to press the button for a ticket, but as it is free parking you don't need a ticket and the machine wont dispense one. As they never put up a sign letting you know it's FREE PARKING on a Sunday and you DON'T need a ticket people keep pressing the button and wait as nothing happens as the machine wont dispense one as you don't need one!
Anyway, on peering through the windows/doors
there is no sign of any water anywhere. Most of the shops have lights on and the doors are half open which have exposed their dry floors.
Clearly the security team don't realise that times are tough at the moment, especially for people in the Retail Industry and by closing the Newlands Centre thousands of pounds will be lost today and as a lot of staff working in the stores wont be needed I suspect people will be losing out on a days pay.
If it was one enormous pipe that had flooded the whole centre then I could understand it being closed, but there is no evidence to suggest this is the case so there is no reason why they couldn't just cordon off the affected area and allow shoppers to spend their money and keep people in business.
Will the Newlands Centre be compensating retailers? I suspect not.
