Alarm over empty shops

The credit crunch is biting deep in Stafford town centre – with more than 40 shopping units in the centre's main streets currently standing empty.

Many stores have closed recently including Woolworths and Max Spielmanns in Gaolgate Street, Passion for Perfume in the Guildhall Shopping Centre and Motor World in Stafford Street.

The QS clothing shop in the Guildhall is also due to close on January 29.

A survey of the town centre found 42 units of varying sizes unoccupied. In Greengate Street five units are empty including the former Crown post office, five are idle in the Guildhall Shopping Centre, four in Princes Street and three in Gaolgate Street.

None of the five new shopping units which were completed last year at Malt Mill at the junction of Salter Street and Malt Mill Lane has yet been let.

Other streets where shops stand empty are: Crabbery Street, two; Stafford Street, one; Gaolgate Place, one; Salter Street, one; Eastgate Street, two; Market Street, two; Mill Street, one; St Mary's Mews, two; Bridge Street, three; Newport Road, two and Wolverhampton Road, two.

Customers

Another shop to close last week was the Enjoy gift shop in Market Street, where a notice says that it has closed due to the prolonged illness of the owner and customers who have supported the business since it opened two years ago are thanked.

Watts (Stafford) Ltd, the former Wardstaff Electrics store in Bridge Street, has also shut after more than 30 years trading in the town centre.

Borough council leader Councillor Judith Dalgarno said it was "very depressing" to see so many vacant units in the town.

"We do have thriving retail parks outside the town centre, but we do need someone to come in to take the empty Woolworths site. It is a key site in the town.

"Shopkeepers are having a tough time and some landlords are charging awfully high rents. They should realise that while they are London based their tenants are in a county town," she added.

She said the council would continue to provide as many activities in the town centre as possible to encourage people to come and shop and use the town centre.

"It is also important to keep the town centre clean and tidy. That ensures people still come and shop and helps encourage new businesses to come in," she stressed.

The borough council's Labour group leader Councillor Jack Kemp said that some shops in the town centre had been empty for a considerable time – and added that he was concerned at the reduction in income from business rates as a consequence.

Councillor Frank Finlay, chairman of the council's resources scrutiny committee, has asked for a report on the number of vacant units to be prepared.