High Street future is community based

I run the Empty Shops Network, an organisation which helps people re-use shops for community projects by providing free resources on the website www.artistsandmakers.com/emptyshops and mapping spaces on www.spareplace.com

Across the country we’re seeing exactly what the Local Data Company is reporting; empty, run-down shops and local people getting fed up with the way their town centres are suffering.

It’s more than just recession, with at least one in five of the shops now empty having no commercial future.

The high street has lost the battle with out-of-town retail parks, supermarkets and online shopping and all the evidence shows we need to find new ways to use our town centres.

They can support small, high-quality independents, niche retail outlets and a whole range of leisure activity – this is a particularly suitable use in seaside resorts like Littlehampton.

Across the country we’re also seeing the same reaction Miriam Nichols has – local authority officers and town centre managers who don’t understand that the landscape of British town centres is undergoing a massive change.

I look forward to local residents, in true “Big Society” style, using the Empty Shops Network to show their councils how town centres should be run.

Dan Thompson

Empty Shops Network

Tower Road

Worthing