Article in the latest "WI Life" magazine about choosing resolutions for the 2013 Conference. One of the short-listed ones concerns the decline of high streets and town centres. The article highlights the average vacancy rate for centres with over 400 shops. Stockport area is on the top of the list with 25% empty shop premises! The research states that high streets have suffered a decline of nearly 5% in footfall in the past year. Town centres took just 42% of retail spend in 2011, which is down from 50% in 2000.
It would be interesting to know where Marple stands in these statistics and how proposed retail developments or the failure thereof will affect the town/village (take your choice of description).
(Admin - I've put this in "Local Issues" as I felt it was of general interest and I didn't want to get bogged down in the "Supermarket Squabble")
Topic: Top of the ratings! (Read 1444 times)