Thanks, Bueller9, Kaptian_Von, Mrs W_2009, and Sapphire 1208, for all your valid comments. hopefully between us, and someone else, it will influence change at East Street in a balanced way.

Watch this space then , there maybe more on the subject. Well hopefully. Codder (Ade)

I think Asda brings good and bad to the area.  Of course the local food, green grocers and bakers might well suffer but on the other side it does bring people into the area.  There are some really good shops, the material shop for both curtains and clothes is excellent.  There are not so many of those around these days and I know it brings people to this area. Maybe what we need is more specialist shops.

Nice to read an upbeat article, Coddger and some good points. The Parade is looking a lot better now, and it would be wonderful if East Street were to follow...but Kaptain is probably right regarding the size of the shops and the rents being a problem. So I think that lots of independent retailers would be good, and designer shops like Coddger said. Definitely less of the amusement arcades!! Charity shops are good, but you can have too many of them - if it's all poundshops, charity shops and arcades on a street, then it's of limited use for a lot of shoppers, which results in people (and money!) going out of the area. On a related note, do you think that Asda has contributed to the decline in East Street's fortunes or has it actually kept it on life support?? Is East St better or worse off for Asda being there?

Unfortunately the decline of East Street began in the recession of the early 1980s and has continued since then. There have been brief moments of 'revival' but from what I understand, the size of the shops puts most of the large chains off and the size of the rents put smaller retailers off.

I'm not sure if a chain like M&S would be a good idea as nowadays they sell many of the items that existing traders on East Street already sell so there is potential for doing more harm than good there. The possible solutions would be a decent toy shop to take the place of Hardings, a music retailer (there used to be two, now none), fishmongers (again there used to be one up until the late 70s), book shop and perhaps some clothes shops catering for those of us who don't look so good in the kind of clothes that Pea**** seem to sell nowadays :)

Charity shops are where it's at, Coddger Ade. All those people buying top price designer clothes and giving them to charity with the tags still on -  I know where I want to shop!

North Street has loads of charity shops, what could be better than getting a blasting deal and the money you pay goes to a good cause.

I hope East Street gets a re-gen too, it deserves it. Although, if the new Tesco Gate goes ahead it may be the death knell for the whole area.