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Those photos do indeed tell a strong and sad story.
It was very interesting to read (much of) Mary Portas' report.
Town Centres need help - help with business rent and rates, help with marketing and promoting the shops, cafes restaurants and pubs. Towns need to be cleaner, smarter and more welcoming.
Car-parking costs are an issue, but not unsolvable - a simple system could be created to reduce the costs to the shoppers to encourage them to shop in their local Town - I have such a system worke out already.
I will say once again (sorry for the broken record) that there needs to be a full time employed person to co-ordinate initiatives and projects and move the Town forward (as per the article in the Express two or three weeks ago).
The salary and related costs need to be funded by the major stakeholders and if enough money is paid in (DTC, DDC, DHB for example), more initiatves can be brought to fruition. It also needs to be a membership type of body to give it a strong voice and of course create greater funds for further initiatves.
I accept that I have upset DTC in some way, also they do not agree with how Dover can move forward and so I would never be given the job, but that doesn't mean that I am wrong to say how Dover can realise its full potential.
More local people need to know that they can buy virtually all they need in Town, but acceptance is made that more and more is bought on the internet and that at the moment, we do not have the range of shops where everything can be bought here; what we need to do is create the (business) environment where people - perhaps the entrepreneurs we need, will feel that a greater range of shops can open - but the shops (and pubs, cafes and restaurants) we have, need to be supported in teh meantime.
Roger