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.
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