Save Our High Street

The biggest retail news right now, must be that the Government has acknowledged the problems that many retailers are facing on the hight street; so they have enlisted Mary Portas to review the situation and see what could be done.

Mary “Queen of Shops” Portas has been drafted in by the UK government to conduct a review of the high street and come up with ideas to bring some variety to so-called “clone towns” and to reinvigorate town centres that are blighted by empty shops.

Prime Minister David Cameron said high streets should be the “very heart of every community” and Portas’s “no-nonsense approach”, as seen on TV, could help reverse the trend towards out-of-town and online shopping which has left one in seven high street shops standing empty

“Three years ago six per cent of high street shops were vacant; by the end of last year the figure had grown to 14 per cent. At this rate, in two years time, more than a third of city centre shops will be boarded up.”

What do you think we should do to revive the high street ?

Or shouldn’t we bother, is it a case of change or die ?

Having watched the city centre in our own city struggle we’re following this story avidly...

You can follow Mary’s progress, or chip in with any brilliant ideas or observations on her website. Some of the comments on there make very interesting reading, so if you’ve got any interest in retail, and you haven’t been on a desert island for the past two years and you know who mary is…. Jump on over…. www.maryportas.com