'Depressing’ Kent high streets could be transformed with new vape and betting shop rules

KentOnline / KMTV

Councils are set to get new powers to crack down on the number of vape shops, bookies and barbers opening in high streets.  Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader was speaking to shoppers in Kent's town centres.

Transcript

00:00It's a town that has got a history of well over a thousand years and this high street is quite

00:06depressing. Yeah I'm just looking up and down the high street they're really not an inspiring

00:10set of props at all. If I didn't live here would I come and visit? No. The resounding feeling on

00:17the streets of Dover, once a bustling town centre now filled with empty shop fronts and the

00:24increasingly familiar neon signs and blacked out windows of vape shops and gambling stores that

00:32are fast becoming the defining image of Kent's urban decline. Well I know there's too many of them at

00:38the moment and you know there isn't any decent clothes shops around here at all. People are not

00:44going to come to visit a vape and a barbers are they? But there is hope at last that local councils

00:50will soon have the powers to turn things around as the government have announced a new pride in place

00:58program that will give our authorities who manage planning matters the power to veto or limit bookies,

01:05dodgy barbers and vape shops which are a common sight even in the most affluent places. Even

01:12Canterbury, Kent's Cathedral City still has a few telltale signs of urban decline such as the old

01:19vacant nation's department store but councillors here hope the pride in place strategy will give

01:25them the powers to do something about this. You know every new shop is it seems to be a vaping shop

01:31the council will be able to have regulations around that but the thing that I'm most passionate about

01:36is that it will give councils the powers if a premises has been empty for two years to put that

01:44those premises up for auction. With councils like Canterbury set to get expanded powers to

01:50compulsorily purchase abandoned buildings and block certain businesses do locals share the excitement?

01:58Well I welcome it if they did it but they don't get on with doing any of this it's just promises.

02:05I've been looking at decline now for about seven years maybe eight I want to see this building used I

02:10want to see that building used but for what purpose? But the new powers may not be the short-term fix

02:17people here are looking for. I think they're potentially important tools in some parts of

02:23the country but they're not a solution on their own the idea that we need to as a community come

02:31together and and find out look why are these units vacant who is the property owner what can be done

02:37about that I think that that is important for us. And there are some who don't welcome the plans at all

02:44with concerns that legitimate vape shops will be lumped in with other cash intensive businesses

02:51associated with money laundering. The eyesore on the high street are those rogue traders and that's what

02:57needs to be dealt with and once they are gone from the high street then you can really rejuvenate the high

03:02street bring other startups and businesses in and and really build that community which which we all

03:08want to have and and see back on the high street. Not it but I think councils will struggle to differentiate

03:14between the reputable retailers and rogue traders. The devil will be in the detail about how these new

03:20powers work but with such strong feelings from across the county there might finally be some sunshine for

03:28Kent's high streets as the autumn skies set in. Oli Leda in Canterbury.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended