If we want to retain our high streets we should close all out of town shopping parks that have grown up in semi-industrial- next to main roads areas. They bleed high streets of business and are eyesores.
I'll give you an example. On the outskirts of Newcastle there is one called The Silverlink. It has grown up beside the main road to the Tyne Tunnel where it meets the main road into Newcastle. It is a poor area of North Shields/Wallsend, near the notorious Meadowell Estate. No one objected to it being built- jobs for the area were the big sell. It has grown vastly over the last 10-12 years.
The coucil have just spent 3 years revamping the infra-structure of roads around it - they had to pick up millions in costs when the private building company went bust. It has the usual array of pile 'em high shops - Next, Sports Direct, The Range, Wren Kitchens, M and S, Boots, Curry's, a big multiplex cinema that is a fortune to go to for a family, with a couple of the usual pizza chains attached. Nothing different.
However, the impact on local high streets has been huge. There was a M and S Simply Food in nearby Whitley Bay (next town along from our village) that closed when M and S opened on the Silverlink. It was the highest grossing Simply Food in the country on a square footage basis. It was always busy and encouraged people locally to shop in Whitley Bay- which at that point flourished and had several independent boutiques, bakers, nice cafes and restaurants,a new mini-shopping centre (which admittedly was cheaply designed with extortionate parking costs) delis, jewellers, chemists, amazing cakes and dessert bakers, off licence, DIY, several florists, independent furniture, decoration, lighting and gift shops.
Then the Simply Food was closed, despite it's success, so as not to detract from the new huge M and S on the Silverlink. Impact on Whitley Bay was huge. People just stopped going. It is like a seedy, grubby, half-dead high street now. Mainly charity shops and boarded up shops-with boarding painted to look like shops and businesses. Boutiques gone - except 1- decorating shop closed, off-licence, 3 florists gone, furniture shops, cafes, delis, bakers, art shop, a number of restaurants. Small shopping centre is drab and half-empty. What is left is poor quality tat or pizza /kebab takeaways, charity shops, Turkish barbers, ecigarette shops, tatoo parlours and a few long term family businesses that are now struggling badly. It is squalid. Same is true of other local high streets- Wallsend and North Shields have become increasingly empty and run-down. There are still Greggs, the odd fruit and veg shop, B and M bargains alongside the tatoo parlours and e-cigarette shops.
Newcastle - 10 minute drive away, has a huge M and S, Next, several Boots. There was no need for Silverlink. It is bad town planning- based on profit for the likes of Mike Ashley at the expense of communities and small businesses.
Whitley Bay should be booming. It has lots of high end housing as well as lovely pedestrianised seaside terraces with front to front gardens. It is on the coast, great for walks, lovely in the summer. Near to Tynemouth- very pretty, prosperous and lively village that attracts visitors to its antique market in the Station every weekend both days. But North Tyneside council's strategy has let Whitley Bay, Wallsend and North Shields down badly. There are increasing numbers of drunks and drug addicts around- put into B and B accomodation by the council. It's just not a very nice place to take two small children shopping now. They moved the police station from the town and put it near to The Silverlink. You never see the police now.
Contrast with Morpeth, Northumberland. Parking fees are expensive in North Tyneside - yet in Northumberland you buy a £1 parking disc that allows you 4 hours of free parking forever and Morpeth, Alnwick and Hexham are great shopping places. North Tyneside have free parking at Silverlink though.
DH and I go to Morpeth now to wander round the shops- it has a M and S, White Stuff, Fat Face, Seasalt, Monsoon, Mint Velvet, Hobbs, Laura Ashley, home decoration shop, a dept store, nice cafes and restaurants, a waterstones, outdoor store, off license, sewing shop, weekly market of cheese, plants, meat, fish, bakers all local produce. It too has a new shopping centre - beautifully and stylishly designed so it looks high quality. Morpeth is no more affluent than the Whitley Bay area but has been well-planned by Northumberland to attract retailers and create a community.
A local example but one replicated all over the country.