Happy second birthday to Eden – it’s been nothing short of a triumph (From Bucks Free Press)

Happy second birthday to Eden – it’s been nothing short of a triumph

12:26pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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THE town was packed, but we parked easily before buying various Mother’s Day gifts and stopping off for a drink in a coffee bar simply teeming with young people.

Afterwards, I went to the barber’s, bought some more stuff and enjoyed an evening meal in a pretty classy restaurant.

Yes, a normal Saturday in the busy shopping town of High Wycombe. Normal except it suddenly dawned on me it was March 13 – the second anniversary of the opening of the Eden shopping and leisure centre.

Two years, and yet it feels like forever. I almost can’t remember what life was like beforehand. But when I think hard, some dismal grey images spring to mind of a town centre with virtually no leisure facilities, no proper range of restaurants and bereft of shoppers as soon as darkness fell.

If the centre did anything to mark its second birthday, then I didn’t notice it. It was business as usual – but what a lot of business there was.

I cast my mind back to March 13, 2008, the day the centre opened. I was there in the crowd to watch as a group of near naked female dancers entertained the crowds, and upset a few people in the process.

I distinctly remember grabbing my camera and leaning over the crowd to take pictures of the dancers.

I then sent the images immediately to the office so they could be uploaded on to our website to celebrate the event.

But I learnt afterwards some people had mistaken me for a dirty old man taking pictures of scantily-clad women.

I also strongly recall editing the mass of letters which poured into us from readers, the majority of whom said they detested the new centre. They hated the open aspect and complained of the ‘wind tunnel’.

It was possibly my largest postbag ever, and the complaints and moans continued unabated for about a month. But it made little difference, because the customers kept pouring in to Eden.

I was also in the crowd when Prince Edward turned up the following May to open the new library, slap bang in the middle of the centre.

My highlight of this event was when the Prince turned around, looked in my direction and inexplicably began laughing. Well at least the Royal Family find me funny, if my own family don’t.

But back to the virtues of Eden. We criticise our various councils for various follies, but they should take full marks for creating this combination of a shopping and leisure centre linked in with a tremendous cultural learning asset.

I still hear people moan about parking prices and empty shops in the rest of the town. And sometimes they have a point.

My biggest gripe remains the fact people are allowed to smoke in a public shopping centre because it is partially open. It’s as if time has gone backwards in that respect.

But in my book, Eden has been nothing short of a triumph. Certainly, the range of shops could improve but maybe that will happen in time, and certainly we need to all help invigorate the rest of the town centre and district.

We did a major feature in March 2008 setting out the potential parking problems – but none of these ever materialised.

It’s like Eden has always been there, along with the nearby theatre and the giant new Sainsbury’s store.

On Saturday, it dawned on me just how far High Wycombe had come in two years. At the end of our evening, I returned to the car. I’d been in the town centre around six hours, but it only cost £4.50 in the multi-storey due to the lower evening rate kicking in at 6pm.

Critics may think I’m doing a PR job on behalf of the council. How wrong they would be. We dish out plenty of brickbats to district and county councillors, so it is only fair to toss a bouquet in their direction when they get it right.

Now if only they could re-open our swimming pool, repair our cracked-up roads, turn our street lights back on... we might actually be happier handing over our council tax.

But let’s celebrate while we can. Happy birthday Eden – and congratulations on being such a bonny two-year-old.