Survey shows Dovercourt badly placed in empty shops league (From Gazette)

Survey shows Dovercourt badly placed in empty shops league

2:00pm Wednesday 24th June 2009 in News By Lorraine Price

DOVERCOURT High Street has been highlighted as having one of the highest number of empty shops in the whole country.

The BBC Money Programme last night revealed the results of research by Experian, which says the town, along with Walkden, in Greater Manchester, and Gateshead, in Tyneside, has almost 60 per cent of retail premises empty.

Lesley Pollard, joint chairman of the Harwich and Dovercourt Partnership, which has been campaigning to get a market in High Street, said the news was terrible.

She said: “It is an absolutely awful percentage by any benchmark, it is dreadful.

“I am not sure what we can do about it, we need people to have more confidence to spend more money.

“There are groups trying to do what they can.

“What is worrying is it’s been happening for a while. It’s not just during the last few months, it is not just the credit crunch.”

In recent months, Dovercourt has seen a number of shops close but also a number of shops open – the Co-op recently shut its doors but the Original Factory Store opened in its place.

It has also been confirmed that the Woolworths site, which has stood empty since December, will become an Iceland store in the coming months.

Martyn Donn, owner of Leam’s Laces in the town, said the research findings were “shocking”.

He said: “You look around and see five to eight shops empty, you think that’s not many, but it is enough.

“We have ships coming in at the port but we haven’t got the tourism infrastructure for visiting tourists.”

But Colin Crawford, chairman of the Harwich and Dovercourt Chamber of Trade, said he disagreed with the findings.

“I haven’t looked in recent weeks but when I did, there were 135 shops and business premises, six were boarded up and, to be fair, they looked horrible.

“I don’t know where they got their information from.

“There are some very good retailers in Dovercourt, there are super people trying to keep going and it is probably very tough.”