http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16881291

Thoughts? Sounds like another half-baked headline-grabber to me...

+1

I think public money has a huge role to play here, many of Britain's high streets are decaying, dingy, dirty and also have heavy traffic. Local Authorities across the country should take a leaf out of Cardiff's book and use public money to create clean, modern, pedestrianised areas which are attractive to shoppers, private enterprise will follow soon afterwards. There's a reason both Cardiff Bay and St David's shopping centre are so popular.

Someone needs to tell Downing Street that £1 million just isn't going to cut it for one high street, let alone twelve.

It's a losing battle. People complain about the death of the high street and how they need to be saved. All the while they go to the big superstores besIde of the low prices

Here in Chelmsford, we must be quite lucky. We have two shopping cents in town. Not huge, but covered halls of commerce nonetheless. The high street connects both and is lined by the usual suspects. It also has a market on weekends. One of the shopping centres is being extended to hold a Primark.

Another mall is planned to house the upcoming John Lewis, possibly a Waitrose and no doubt more. It will, I suspect, open Gap and Currys up to the new space, which. Bet will have anther Costa and a MacDonalds. The new mall will also connect to a row of river side restaurants, and will put the in town Tesco within reach.

John Lewis will make Debenhams buck its ideas up. The idea is to stop people leaving the town for Lakeside and Bluewater - places where people head to when they want the variety that the town can't offer.

As I said, we're lucky. The high street has not died, and looks like it's going to improve rather than wither anyway. The new mall will increase capacity, and may well encourage more interesting shops to open up as the town attracts more visitors.