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It's lack of footfall in the town centre generally. There's no single cause. It's a combination of parking charges, out-of-town developments, an extremely elongated shopping area which puts off older people and those of impaired mobility, and the fact that for every shop which has something you might want to buy, there's a pawnbroker, a betting shop, two charity shops and two estate agents (sorry, Simon!). Additionally, only a few buses pass through the market square nowadays. Then, for people who live in the villages, Canterbury, Deal, Westwood and Folkestone offer a better shopping experience for an extra ten minutes in the car. And I'm sure that the familiar Dovorian trait of knocking the home town doesn't help much either.