BARNARD Castle’s high street continues to buck national trends by continuing to grow despite the coronavirus pandemic.
A count of businesses trading in the town shows there are fewer vacant shops than five years ago.
Nine empty shops were identified during Durham County Council’s last survey in 2017, giving the town a vacancy rate of just 4.9 per cent – the lowest in the county.
At the time the town had 182 business units.
However, an unofficial survey last week showed only eight empty shops in Barnard Castle
Of those that are empty many are non-retail, including Teesdale YMCA’s office and the Influence Church site, both in Galgate.
Others to close include a betting shop, a computer store, and a hair salon.
Two former bank premises also remain empty.
However, a number of new independent traders have set up shop in the past two years, including an Italian ice-cream vendor, a baker and a smoothie drinks shop.
Businesses hope the wide array of independent outlets will attract more visitors and tourists to the town.
Chocolate Fayre owner Kenny Walker is among those who want tourism officers to do more to market the town.
He said: “It has so many unique offerings on the high street, alongside the historic and natural attractions of the area.”
However, he noted that the pandemic had presented challenges for businesses and it had been hard work to keep going.
Chocolate Fayre moved premises just six months before the pandemic began.
Mr Walker said: “Fortunately, we already had our website with its online shop, and added local delivery to our offering during lockdown.
“With a lot of hard work, we survived the first lockdown, brought our staff back from furlough and steadily began feeling our way through the still changing landscape of Covid rules, public perception, further lockdowns, restrictions, Brexit issues, supply chain shortages and delays, and other challenges.”
He argued that by being able to be flexible and identifying new ways to satisfy customers the business is “arguably stronger” than it was pre-Covid.
Cllr Elizabeth Scott, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for economy and partnerships, said: “We carry out annual surveys for each of our main centres as part of our work to monitor the vitality of high streets and identify areas for intervention. Throughout the past ten years, Barnard Castle has remained among those with the lowest vacancy rate of all our town centres.
“Over the last two years we have assisted seven businesses in Barnard Castle through our Targeted Business Improvement fund, which provides investment for external or internal works to improve existing retail units and bring disused premises back into use. This in turn has brought more than £100,000 of private investment to the town. We also offer advice and guidance to new and growing businesses in the retail sector, providing training in areas such as digital and marketing as well as identifying suitable retail space and any gaps in the market in towns.”
